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A Clockwork Orange (novel)

### Part 1: Alex's world

Alex is a 15-year-old gang leader living in a near-future dystopian city. His friends ("droogs" in the novel's Anglo-Russian slang, "Nadsat") and fellow gang members are Dim, a slow-witted bruiser, who is the gang's muscle; Georgie, an ambitious second-in-command; and Pete, who mostly plays along as the droogs indulge their taste for "ultra-violence" (random, violent mayhem). Characterised as a sociopath and hardened juvenile delinquent, Alex is also intelligent, quick-witted, and enjoys classical music; he is particularly fond of Beethoven, whom he calls "Lovely Ludwig Van".

The story begins with the droogs sitting in their favourite hangout, the Korova Milk Bar, and drinking "milk-plus" – a beverage consisting of milk laced with the customer's drug of choice – to prepare for a night of ultra-violence. They assault a scholar walking home from the public library; rob a store, leaving the owner and his wife bloodied and unconscious; beat up a beggar; then scuffle with a rival gang. Joyriding through the countryside in a stolen car, they break into an isolated cottage and terrorise the young couple living there, beating the husband and gang-raping his wife. In a metafictional touch, the husband is a writer working on a manuscript called "''A Clockwork Orange''", and Alex contemptuously reads out a paragraph that states the novel's main theme before shredding the manuscript. Back at the Korova, Alex strikes Dim for his crude response to a woman's singing of an operatic passage, and strains within the gang become apparent. At home in his parents' flat, Alex plays classical music at top volume, which he describes as giving him orgasmic bliss before falling asleep.

Alex feigns illness to his parents to stay out of school the next day. Following an unexpected visit from P.R. Deltoid, his "post-corrective adviser", Alex visits a record store, where he meets two pre-teen girls. He invites them back to the flat, where he drugs and rapes them. That night after a nap, Alex finds his droogs in a mutinous mood, waiting downstairs in the torn-up and graffitied lobby. Georgie challenges Alex for leadership of the gang, demanding that they focus on higher-value targets in their robberies. Alex quells the rebellion by slashing Dim's hand and fighting with Georgie, then pacifies the gang by agreeing to Georgie's plan to rob the home of a wealthy elderly woman. Alex breaks in and knocks the woman unconscious; but, when he hears sirens and opens the door to flee, Dim strikes him in payback for the earlier fight. The gang abandons Alex on the front step to be arrested by the police; while in custody, he learns that the woman has died from her injuries.

### Part 2: The Ludovico Technique

Alex is convicted of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison. His parents visit one day to inform him that Georgie has been killed in a botched robbery. Two years into his term, he has obtained a job in one of the prison chapels, playing music on the stereo to accompany the Sunday Christian services. The chaplain mistakes Alex's Bible studies for stirrings of faith; in reality, Alex is only reading Scripture for the violent or sexual passages. After his fellow cellmates blame him for beating a troublesome cellmate to death, he is chosen to undergo an experimental behaviour modification treatment called the Ludovico Technique in exchange for having the remainder of his sentence commuted. The technique is a form of aversion therapy in which Alex is injected with nausea-inducing drugs while watching graphically violent films, eventually conditioning him to become severely ill at the mere thought of violence. As an unintended consequence, the soundtrack to one of the films, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, renders Alex unable to enjoy his beloved classical music as before.

The effectiveness of the technique is demonstrated to a group of VIPs, who watch as Alex collapses before a man who slaps him and abases himself before a scantily clad young woman. Although the prison chaplain accuses the state of stripping Alex of free will, the government officials on the scene are pleased with the results, and Alex is released from prison.

### Part 3: After prison

Alex returns to his parents' flat, only to find that they are letting his room to a lodger. Now homeless, he wanders the streets and enters a public library, hoping to learn of a painless method for committing suicide. The old scholar whom Alex had assaulted in Part 1 finds him and beats him, with the help of several friends. Two policemen come to Alex's rescue, but they turn out to be Dim and Billyboy, a former rival gang leader. They take Alex outside town, brutalise him, and abandon him there. Alex collapses at the door of an isolated cottage, realising too late that it is the one he and his droogs invaded in Part 1.

The writer, F. Alexander, still lives here, but his wife has since died of what he believes to be injuries she sustained in the rape. He does not recognise Alex but gives him shelter and questions him about the conditioning he has undergone. Alexander and his colleagues, all highly critical of the government, plan to use Alex as a symbol of state brutality and thus prevent the incumbent government from being re-elected. Alex inadvertently reveals that he was the ringleader of the home invasion; he is removed from the cottage and locked in an upper-story bedroom as a relentless barrage of classical music plays over speakers. He attempts suicide by leaping from the window.

Alex wakes up in a hospital, where he is courted by government officials anxious to counter the bad publicity created by his suicide attempt. He is informed that Alexander has been "put away" for Alex's protection and his own. Alex is offered a well-paying job if he agrees to side with the government once he is discharged. A round of tests reveals that his old violent impulses have returned, indicating that the hospital doctors have undone the effects of his conditioning. As photographers snap pictures, Alex daydreams of orgiastic violence and reflects, "I was cured all right."

In the final chapter, Alex—now 18 years old and working for the nation's musical recording archives—finds himself halfheartedly preparing for yet another night of crime with a new gang (Len, Rick and Bully). After a chance encounter with Pete, who has reformed and married, Alex finds himself taking less and less pleasure in acts of senseless violence. He begins contemplating giving up crime himself to become a productive member of society and start a family of his own, while reflecting on the notion that his own children could possibly end up being just as destructive as he has been, if not more so.

The Plague (novel)

The book begins with an epigraph quoting Daniel Defoe, author of ''A Journal of the Plague Year''.

### Part one

In the town of Oran, thousands of rats, initially unnoticed by the populace, begin to die in the streets. Hysteria develops soon afterward, causing the local newspapers to report the incident. Authorities responding to public pressure order the collection and cremation of the rats, unaware that the collection itself was the catalyst for the spread of the bubonic plague.

The main character, Dr. Bernard Rieux, lives comfortably in an apartment building when strangely the building's concierge, M. Michel, a confidante, dies from a fever. Dr. Rieux consults his colleague, Dr. Castel, about the illness until they come to the conclusion that a plague is sweeping the town. They both approach fellow doctors and town authorities about their theory but are eventually dismissed on the basis of one death. However, as more deaths quickly ensue, it becomes apparent that there is an epidemic. Meanwhile, Rieux's wife has been sent to a sanatorium in another city, to be treated for an unrelated chronic illness.

Authorities, including the Prefect, are slow to accept that the situation is serious and quibble over the appropriate action to take. Official notices enacting control measures are posted, but the language used is optimistic and downplays the seriousness of the situation. A "special ward" is opened at the hospital, but its 80 beds are filled within three days. As the death toll begins to rise, more desperate measures are taken. Homes are quarantined; corpses and burials are strictly supervised. A supply of plague serum finally arrives, but there is enough to treat only existing cases, and the country's emergency reserves are depleted. When the daily number of deaths jumps to 30, the town is sealed, and an outbreak of plague is officially declared.

### Part two

The town is sealed off. The town gates are shut, rail travel is prohibited, and all mail service is suspended. The use of telephone lines is restricted only to "urgent" calls, leaving short telegrams as the only means of communicating with friends or family outside the town. The separation affects daily activity and depresses the spirit of the townspeople, who begin to feel isolated and introverted, and the plague begins to affect various characters.

One character, Raymond Rambert, devises a plan to escape the city to join his wife in Paris after city officials refused his request to leave. He befriends some underground criminals so that they may smuggle him out of the city. Another character, Father Paneloux, uses the plague as an opportunity to advance his stature in the town by suggesting that the plague was an act of God punishing the citizens' sinful nature. His diatribe falls on the ears of many citizens of the town, who turned to religion in droves but would not have done so under normal circumstances. Cottard, a criminal remorseful enough to attempt suicide but fearful of being arrested, becomes wealthy as a major smuggler. Meanwhile, Jean Tarrou, a vacationer; Joseph Grand, a civil engineer; and Dr. Rieux, exhaustively treat patients in their homes and in the hospital.

Rambert informs Tarrou of his escape plan, but when Tarrou tells him that there are others in the city, including Dr. Rieux, who have loved ones outside the city whom they are not allowed to see, Rambert becomes sympathetic and offers to help Rieux fight the epidemic until he leaves town.

### Part three

In mid-August, the situation continues to worsen. People try to escape the town, but some are shot by armed sentries. Violence and looting break out on a small scale, and the authorities respond by declaring martial law and imposing a curfew. Funerals are conducted with more speed, no ceremony and little concern for the feelings of the families of the deceased. The inhabitants passively endure their increasing feelings of exile and separation. Despondent, they waste away emotionally as well as physically.

### Part four

In September and October, the town remains at the mercy of the plague. Rieux hears from the sanatorium that his wife's condition is worsening. He also hardens his heart regarding the plague victims so that he can continue to do his work. Cottard, on the other hand, seems to flourish during the plague because it gives him a sense of being connected to others, since everybody faces the same danger. Cottard and Tarrou attend a performance of Gluck's opera ''Orpheus and Eurydice'', but the actor portraying Orpheus collapses with plague symptoms during the performance.

After extended negotiations with guards, Rambert finally has a chance to escape, but he decides to stay, saying that he would feel ashamed of himself if he left.

Towards the end of October, Castel's new antiplague serum is tried for the first time, but it cannot save the life of Othon's young son, who suffers greatly, as Paneloux, Rieux, and Tarrou tend to his bedside in horror.

Paneloux, who has joined the group of volunteers fighting the plague, gives a second sermon. He addresses the problem of an innocent child's suffering and says it is a test of a Christian's faith since it requires him either to deny everything or believe everything. He urges the congregation not to give up the struggle but to do everything possible to fight the plague.

A few days after the sermon, Paneloux is taken ill. His symptoms do not conform to those of the plague, but the disease still proves fatal.

Tarrou and Rambert visit one of the isolation camps, where they meet Othon. When Othon's period of quarantine ends, he chooses to stay in the camp as a volunteer because this will make him feel less separated from his dead son. Tarrou tells Rieux the story of his life and, to take their mind off the epidemic, the two men go swimming together in the sea. Grand catches the plague and instructs Rieux to burn all his papers. However, Grand makes an unexpected recovery, and deaths from the plague start to decline.

### Part five

By late January the plague is in full retreat, and the townspeople begin to celebrate the imminent opening of the town gates. Othon, however, does not escape death from the disease. Cottard is distressed by the ending of the epidemic from which he has profited by shady dealings. Two government employees approach him, and he flees. Despite the epidemic's ending, Tarrou contracts the plague and dies after a heroic struggle. Rieux is later informed via telegram that his wife has also died.

In February, the town gates open and people are reunited with their loved ones from other cities. Rambert is reunited with his wife. Cottard goes mad and shoots at people from his home, and is soon arrested after a brief skirmish with the police. Grand begins working on his novel again. The narrator of the chronicle says that he is Dr. Rieux and states that he tried to present an objective view of the events. He reflects on the epidemic and declares he wrote the chronicle "to simply say what we learn in the midst of plagues: there are more things to admire in men than to despise".

A Fire Upon the Deep

An expedition from Straumli Realm, an ambitious young human civilization in the high Beyond, investigates a five-billion-year-old data archive in the low Transcend that offers the possibility of unimaginable riches. The expedition's facility, High Lab, is gradually compromised by a dormant superintelligence within the archive later known as the Blight. However, shortly before the Blight's final "flowering", two self-aware entities created similarly to the Blight plot to aid the humans before the Blight can escape.

Recognizing the danger of what they have awakened, the researchers at High Lab attempt to flee in two ships, one carrying all the adults and the second carrying all the children in "coldsleep boxes". Suspicious, the Blight discovers that the first ship contains a data storage device in its cargo manifest; assuming it contains information that could harm it, the Blight destroys the ship. The second ship escapes. The Blight assumes that it is no threat, but later realizes that it is actually carrying away a "countermeasure" against it.

The ship lands on a distant planet with a medieval-level civilization of dog-like creatures, dubbed "Tines", who live in packs as group minds. Upon landing, however, the two surviving adults are ambushed and killed by Tine fanatics known as Flenserists, in whose realm they have landed. The Flenserists capture a young boy named Jefri Olsndot and his wounded sister, Johanna. While Jefri is taken deeper into Flenserist territory, Johanna is rescued by a Tine pilgrim who witnessed the ambush and delivers her to a neighboring kingdom ruled by a Tine named Woodcarver. The Flenserists tell Jefri that Johanna had been killed by Woodcarver and exploit him in order to develop advanced technology (such as cannon and radio communication), while Johanna and the knowledge stored in her "dataset" device help Woodcarver rapidly develop in turn.

A distress signal from the sleeper ship eventually reaches "Relay", a major node in the galactic communications network. A benign transcendent entity named "the Old One" contacts Relay, seeking information about the Blight and the humans who released it, and reconstitutes a human man named Pham Nuwen from an old wreck to act as its agent, using his doubt of his own memory's veracity to bend him to the Old One's will. Ravna Bergsndot, the only human Relay employee, traces the sleeper ship's signal to the Tines' world and persuades her employer to investigate what the human ship took from High Lab, contracting the merchant vessel ''Out of Band II'', owned by two sentient plant Skroderiders, Blueshell and Greenstalk, to transport them.

Before the mission is launched, the Blight attacks Relay and concurrently kills Old One. As Old One dies, it downloads what information it can into Pham to defeat the Blight, and Pham, Ravna and the Skroderiders barely escape Relay's destruction in the ''Out of Band II''.

The Blight expands, taking over races and "rewriting" their people to become its agents, murdering several other Powers, and seizing other archives in the Beyond, looking for what was taken. It finally realizes where the danger truly lies and sends a hastily assembled fleet in pursuit of the ''Out of Band II''.

The humans arrive at the Tines' homeworld and ally with Woodcarver to defeat the Flenserists. Pham initiates Countermeasure, which extends the Slow Zone by thousands of light years, enveloping the Blight at the cost of wrecking thousands of uninvolved civilizations and causing trillions of deaths. The humans are stranded on the Tines world, now in the depths of the "Slow Zone". Activating the countermeasure costs Pham his life, but just before Pham dies, he realizes that, although his body is a reconstruction, his memories are real. Vinge expands on Pham's background story in ''A Deepness in the Sky''.

All Quiet on the Western Front

The book tells the story of Paul Bäumer, who belongs to a group of German soldiers on the Western Front during World War I. The patriotic speeches of his teacher Kantorek had led the whole class to volunteer for the Imperial German Army shortly after the start of The Great War. He didn't have any experience when going into the war but he went in with an open mind and a kind heart. Paul lived with his father, mother, and sister in a charming German village, and attended school. His class was "scattered over the platoons amongst Frisian fishermen, peasants, and laborers." Bäumer arrives at the Western Front with his friends and schoolmates (Leer, Müller, Kropp, and a number of other characters). There they meet Stanislaus Katczinsky, an older soldier, nicknamed Kat, who becomes Paul's mentor. While fighting at the front, Bäumer and his comrades have to engage in frequent battles and endure the treacherous and filthy conditions of trench warfare.

At the beginning of the book, Remarque writes, "This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped (its) shells, were destroyed by the war." The book does not focus on heroic stories of bravery, but rather gives a view of the conditions in which the soldiers find themselves. The monotony between battles, the constant threat of artillery fire and bombardments, the struggle to find food, the lack of training of young recruits (meaning lower chances of survival), and the overarching role of random chance in the lives and deaths of the soldiers are described in detail.

The battles fought here have no names and seem to have little overall significance, except for the impending possibility of injury or death for Bäumer and his comrades. Only pitifully meager pieces of land are gained, about the size of a football field, which are often lost again later. Remarque often refers to the living soldiers as old and dead, emotionally drained and shaken. "We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing from ourselves, from our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces."

Paul's visiting his home highlights the cost of the war on his psyche. The town has not changed since he went off to war, but he has: he finds that he does "not belong here anymore, it is a foreign world." He feels disconnected from most of the townspeople. His father asks him "stupid and distressing" questions about his war experiences, not understanding "that a man cannot talk of such things." An old schoolmaster lectures him about strategy and advancing to Paris while insisting that Paul and his friends know only their "own little sector" of the war but nothing of the big picture.

Indeed, the only person he remains connected to is his dying mother, with whom he shares a tender, yet restrained relationship. The night before he is to return from leave, he stays up with her, exchanging small expressions of love and concern for each other. He thinks to himself, "Ah! Mother, Mother! How can it be that I must part from you? Here I sit and there you are dying; we have so much to say, and we shall never say it." In the end, he concludes that he "ought never to have come [home] on leave."

Paul feels glad to be reunited with his comrades. Soon after, he volunteers to go on a patrol and kills a man for the first time in hand-to-hand combat. He watches the man die, in pain for hours. He feels remorse and asks forgiveness from the man's corpse. He is devastated and later confesses to Kat and Albert, who try to comfort him and reassure him that it is only part of the war. They are then sent on what Paul calls a "good job." They must guard a supply depot in a village that was evacuated due to being shelled too heavily. During this time, the men are able to adequately feed themselves, unlike the near-starvation conditions in the German trenches. In addition, the men enjoy themselves while living off the spoils from the village and officers' luxuries from the supply depot (such as fine cigars). While evacuating the villagers (enemy civilians), Paul and Albert are taken by surprise by artillery fired at the civilian convoy and wounded by a shell. On the train back home, Albert takes a turn for the worse and cannot complete the journey, instead being sent off the train to recuperate in a Catholic hospital. Paul uses a combination of bartering and manipulation to stay by Albert's side. Albert eventually has his leg amputated, while Paul is deemed fit for service and returned to the front.

By now, the war is nearing its end and the German Army is retreating. In despair, Paul watches as his friends fall one by one. It is the death of Kat that eventually makes Paul careless about living. In the final chapter, he comments that peace is coming soon, but he does not see the future as bright and shining with hope. Paul feels that he has no aims or goals left in life and that their generation will be different and misunderstood.

In October 1918, Paul is finally killed on a remarkably peaceful day. The situation report from the frontline states a simple phrase: "All quiet on the Western Front." Paul's corpse displays a calm expression on its face, "as though almost glad the end had come."

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

The story unfolds via the introduction video, explanations of new technologies, videos obtained for completing secret projects, interludes, and cut-scenes. The native life consists primarily of simple wormlike alien parasites and a type of red fungus that spreads rapidly via spores.Shah (2000), p.2. The fungus is difficult to traverse, provides invisibility for the enemy, provides few resources, and spawns "mindworms" that attack population centres and military units by neurally parasitising them.Tito (2005), p.2. Mindworms can eventually be captured and bred in captivity and used as terroristic bioweapons,McCubbin (1999), p.277. and the player eventually discovers that the fungus and mindworms can think collectively.

A voice intrudes into the player's dreams and soon waking moments, threatening more attacks if the industrial pollution and terraforming by the colonists is not reversed.McCubbin (1999), p.281. The player discovers that Planet is a dormant semi-sentient hive organism that will soon experience a metamorphosis which will destroy all human life.McCubbin (1999), p.282. To counter this threat, the player or a computer faction builds "The Voice of Alpha Centauri" secret project, which artificially links Planet's distributed nervous system into the human Datalinks, delaying Planet's metamorphosis into full self-awareness but incidentally increasing its ultimate intelligence substantially by giving it access to all of humanity's accumulated knowledge.McCubbin (1999), p.283.McCubbin (1999), p.284.McCubbin (1999), p.285. Finally, the player or a computer faction embraces the "Ascent to Transcendence" in which humans too join their brains with the hive organism in its metamorphosis to godhood.McCubbin (1999), p.287. Thus, ''Alpha Centauri'' closes "with a swell of hope and wonder in place of the expected triumphalism", reassuring "that the events of the game weren’t the entirety of mankind’s future, but just another step."

A Wizard of Earthsea

The novel follows a young boy called Duny, nicknamed "Sparrowhawk", born on the island of Gont. Discovering that the boy has great innate power, his aunt, a witch, teaches him the little magic she knows. When his village is attacked by Kargish raiders, Duny summons a fog to conceal the village and its inhabitants, enabling the residents to drive off the Kargs. Hearing of this, the powerful mage Ogion takes him as an apprentice, and later gives him his "true name"—Ged. Ogion tries to teach Ged about the "equilibrium", the concept that magic can upset the natural order of the world if used improperly. In an attempt to impress a girl, however, Ged searches Ogion's spell books and inadvertently summons a strange shadow, which has to be banished by Ogion. Sensing Ged's eagerness to act and impatience with his slow teaching methods, Ogion asks if he would rather go to the renowned school for wizards on the island of Roke. Ged loves Ogion, but decides to go to the school.

At the school, Ged meets Jasper, and is immediately on bad terms with him. He is befriended by an older student named Vetch, but generally remains aloof from anyone else. Ged's skills inspire admiration from teachers and students alike. He finds a small creature—an otak, named Hoag, and keeps it as a pet. During a festival, Jasper, acts condescendingly towards Ged, provoking the latter's proud nature. Ged challenges him to a duel of magic, and casts a powerful spell intended to raise the spirit of a legendary dead woman. The spell goes awry and instead releases a shadow creature, which attacks him and scars his face. The Archmage Nemmerle drives the shadow away, but at the cost of his life.

Ged spends many months healing before resuming his studies. The new Archmage, Gensher, describes the shadow as an ancient evil that wishes to possess Ged, and warns him that the creature has no name. Ged eventually graduates and receives his wizard's staff. He then takes up residence in the Ninety Isles, providing the poor villagers protection from the dragons that have seized and taken up residence on the nearby island of Pendor, but discovers that he is still being sought by the shadow. Knowing that he cannot guard against both threats at the same time, he sails to Pendor and gambles his life on a guess of the adult dragon's true name. When he is proved right, the dragon offers to tell him the name of the shadow, but Ged instead extracts a promise that the dragon and his offspring will never threaten the archipelago.

Chased by the shadow, Ged flees to Osskil, having heard of the stone of the Terrenon. He is attacked by the shadow, and barely escapes into the Court of Terrenon. Serret, the lady of the castle, and the same girl that Ged had tried to impress, shows him the stone, and urges Ged to speak to it, claiming it can give him limitless knowledge and power. Recognizing that the stone harbors one of the Old Powers—ancient, powerful, malevolent beings—Ged refuses. He flees and is pursued by the stone's minions, but transforms into a swift falcon and escapes. He loses his otak.

Ged flies back to Ogion on Gont. Unlike Gensher, Ogion insists that all creatures have a name and advises Ged to confront the shadow. Ogion is proved right; when Ged seeks out the shadow, it flees from him. Ged pursues it in a small sailboat, until it lures him into a fog where the boat is wrecked on a reef. Ged recovers with the help of an elderly couple marooned on a small island since they were children; the woman gives Ged part of a broken bracelet as a gift. Ged patches his boat and resumes his pursuit of the creature into the East Reach. On the island of Iffish, he meets his friend Vetch, who insists on joining him. They journey east far beyond the last known lands before they finally come upon the shadow. Naming it with his own name, Ged merges with it and joyfully tells Vetch he is healed and whole.

Anyone Can Whistle

### Act 1

The story is set in an imaginary American town that has gone bankrupt. (Its former major industry was an unidentified product that never wore out. Everyone has one now, and no one needs a replacement.) The only place in town doing good business is the local mental asylum, known as “The Cookie Jar,” whose inmates look much healthier than the disgruntled townspeople. ("I'm Like the Bluebird") All the money is in the hands of Cora Hoover Hooper, the stylish, ruthless mayoress and her cronies - Comptroller Schub, Treasurer Cooley, and Police Chief Magruder. Cora appears carried in a litter by her backup singers, and admits that she can accept anything except unpopularity (“Me and My Town”). The scheming Comptroller Schub tells her that he has a plan to save her administration, and the town, promising “It's unethical.” He tells her to meet him at the rock on the edge of town. At the rock, a local mother, Mrs. Schroeder, tries to tell her child, Baby Joan, to come down from the rock, when Baby Joan licks it - and a spring of water begins flowing from it. The town instantly proclaims a miracle, and Cora and her council eagerly anticipate tourist dollars as they boast of the water's curative powers. ("Miracle Song") It is soon revealed to Cora that the miracle is a fake, controlled by a pump inside the rock. The only person in town who doubts the miracle is Fay Apple, a skeptical but idealistic young nurse from the Cookie Jar. She appears at the rock with all forty-nine of the inmates, or “Cookies” in tow, intending to let them take some of the water. Schub realizes that if they drink the water and remain insane, people will discover the fraud. As he tries to stop Fay, the inmates mingle with the townspeople, until no one can guess who is who. Fay disappears, and hiding from the police, admits that she hopes for a hero to deliver the town Cora and her lackeys (“There Won't Be Trumpets”). Cora arrives on the scene with the Cookie Jar's manager, Dr. Detmold, who says that Fay has taken the records to identify the inmates. He tells Cora that he is expecting a new assistant who might help them. At that moment a mysterious stranger, J. Bowden Hapgood, arrives asking for directions to the Cookie Jar. He is instantly taken for the new assistant. Asked to identify the missing Cookies, Hapgood begins questioning random people and sorting them into two groups, group A, and group one, without divulging which group is the sane one. The town council becomes suspicious, but Hapgood simply questions them until they begin to doubt their own sanity. Cora is too caught up with his logic to care. (“Simple”) As the extended musical sequence ends, the lights black out except for a spotlight on Hapgood, who announces to the audience, “You are all mad!” Seconds later, the stage lights are restored, and the cast is revealed in theater seats, holding programs, applauding the audience, as the act ends.

### Act 2

As Act II opens, the two groups are now in a bitter rivalry over who is the sane group (“A-1 March”) Another stranger, a French woman in a feathered coat appears. It is really Fay Apple in disguise. She introduces herself as the Lady from Lourdes, a professional Miracle Inspector, who has come to investigate the miracle. As Schub runs off to warn Cora, Fay seeks out Hapgood in his hotel, and the two seduce each other in the style of a French romantic film. (“Come Play Wiz Me”) Fay tries to get Hapgood's help in exposing the miracle. Hapgood, however, sees through her disguise and wants to question her first. Fay refuses to take her wig off and confesses to him that this disguise, leftover from a college play, is the only way she can break out of her shell. She begins to hope, however, that Hapgood may be the one who can help her learn to be free. (“Anyone Can Whistle”) Meanwhile, the two groups continue to march, and Cora, trying to give a speech, realizes that Hapgood has stolen her limelight. (“A Parade in Town”) She and Schub plan an emergency meeting at her house. Back at the hotel, Hapgood comes up with an idea, telling Fay to destroy the Cookies' records, so both they and Fay can be free. When Fay is reluctant, Hapgood produces a record of his own - he is her fiftieth Cookie. He is a practicing idealist who, after years of attempted heroism, is tired of crusading and has come to the Cookie Jar to retire. Inspired by his record, Fay begins to tear the records up. As she does, the Cookies appear and begin to dance (“Everybody Says Don't”).

### Act 3

Act III begins with Cora at her house with her council. Schub has put the miracle on hiatus but announces that they can easily pin the blame on Hapgood. The group celebrates their alliance. (“I've Got You to Lean On”) A mob forms outside the hotel, and Hapgood and Fay, still disguised, take refuge under the rock. Discovering the fraud, Cora and the council confront them. At that moment, Cora receives a telegram from the governor warning that if the quota of forty-nine cookies is not filled, she will be impeached. Schub tells her that since Hapgood never said who is sane or not, they can arrest anyone at random until the quota is filled. Hapgood refuses to help Fay stop the Mayoress since he has given up crusading. Although she knows she still isn't out of her shell, Fay angrily swears to go it alone. (“See What it Gets You”) As Cora and the police force begin rounding up Cookies, Fay tries to get the key to the wagon from the guards in an extended ballet sequence. (“The Cookie Chase”) As it ends, Fay is captured, and Dr. Detmold recognizes her. Fay tells the townspeople about the fake miracle, but the town refuses to believe her. Detmold tells Cora that even without the records, Fay can identify the inmates from memory. Cora warns that she will arrest forty-nine people, normal or not, and Fay, helplessly, identifies all the Cookies, except Hapgood. She tells him the world needs people like him, and Hapgood can't turn himself in. He asks Fay to come with him, but she still can't bring herself to break free. They regretfully part ways. (“With So Little to Be Sure Of”) Word comes of a new miracle from the town beyond the valley, of a statue with a warm heart, and the townspeople, including Magruder and Cooley, rush off to see if it is real. Soon the town is all but deserted, and Cora is alone again. Again, Schub has the answer - they can turn the entire town into one big Cookie Jar. Cora realizes she and Schub are meant for each other, and they dance off together. As Fay resumes work, Detmold's real new assistant Jane Borden Osgood arrives, and Fay is horrified to realize that she is even more rigid and disbelieving than Fay herself, and the new nurse marches the Cookies off to the next town to disprove the new miracle. Horrified at seeing what she might become, Fay returns to the rock calling for Hapgood. When he doesn't answer, she tries to whistle - and succeeds in blowing a shrill, ugly whistle. Hapgood appears again, saying 'That's good enough for me.' As they embrace, the water begins flowing from the rock - a true miracle this time. (Finale)

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

In ancient Rome, some neighbors live in three adjacent houses. In the center is the house of Senex, who lives there with wife Domina, son Hero, and several slaves, including head slave Hysterium and the musical's main character Pseudolus. A slave belonging to Hero, Pseudolus wishes to buy, win, or steal his freedom. One of the neighboring houses is owned by Marcus Lycus, who is a buyer and seller of beautiful women; the other belongs to the ancient Erronius, who is abroad searching for his long-lost children (stolen in infancy by pirates).

One day, Senex and Domina go on a trip and leave Pseudolus in charge of Hero. Hero confides in Pseudolus that he is in love with the lovely Philia, one of the courtesans in the House of Lycus (albeit still a virgin). Pseudolus promises to help him win Philia's love in exchange for his own freedom. Unfortunately (as the two find out when they pay a visit on Lycus), Philia has been sold to the renowned warrior Miles Gloriosus, who is expected to claim her very soon. Pseudolus, an excellent liar, uses Philia's cheery disposition to convince Lycus that she has picked up a plague from Crete, which causes its victims to smile endlessly in its terminal stages. By offering to isolate her in Senex's house, he is able to give Philia and Hero some time alone together, and the two fall in love. But Philia insists that, even though she is in love with Hero, she must honor her contract with the Captain, for "that is the way of a courtesan." To appease her, he tells her to wait ("that's what virgins do best, isn't it?") inside, and that he will have the captain knock three times when he arrives. Pseudolus comes up with a plan to slip Philia a sleeping potion that will render her unconscious. He will then tell Lycus that she has died of the Cretan plague, and will offer to remove the body. Hero will come along, and they will stow away on a ship headed for Greece. Satisfied with his plan, Pseudolus steals Hysterium's book of potions and has Hero read him the recipe for the sleeping potion; the only ingredient he lacks is "mare's sweat", and Pseudolus goes off in search of some.

Unexpectedly, Senex returns home early from his trip, and knocks three times on his own door. Philia comes out of the house, and, thinking that Senex is the Captain, offers herself up to him. Surprised but game, Senex instructs Philia to wait in the house for him, and she does. Hysterium arrives to this confusion, and tells Senex that Philia is the new maid that he has hired. Pseudolus returns, having procured the necessary mare's sweat; seeing that Senex has returned unexpectedly and grasping the need to keep him out of the way, Pseudolus discreetly sprinkles some of the horse-sweat onto him, then suggests that the road trip has left Senex in dire need of a bath. Taking the bait, Senex instructs Hysterium to draw him a bath in the long-abandoned house of Erronius. But while this is happening, Erronius returns home, finally having given up the search for his long-lost children. Hysterium, desperate to keep him out of the house where his master is bathing, tells the old man that his house has become haunted – a story seemingly confirmed by the sound of Senex singing in his bath. Erronius immediately determines to have a soothsayer come and banish the spirit from his house, and Pseudolus obligingly poses as one, telling Erronius that, in order to banish the spirit, he must travel seven times around the seven hills of Rome (thus keeping the old man occupied and out of the way for quite a while).

When Miles Gloriosus arrives to claim his courtesan-bride, Pseudolus hides Philia on the roof of Senex's house; told that she has "escaped", Lycus is terrified to face the Captain's wrath. Pseudolus offers to impersonate Lycus and talk his way out of the mess but, his ingenuity flagging, he ends up merely telling the Captain that Philia has disappeared, and that he, "Lycus", will search for her. Displeased and suspicious, Miles insists that his soldiers accompany Pseudolus, but the wily slave loses them in Rome's winding streets.

Complicating matters further, Domina returns from her trip early, suspicious that her husband Senex is "up to something low." She disguises herself in virginal white robes and a veil (much like Philia's) to try to catch Senex being unfaithful. Pseudolus convinces Hysterium to help him by dressing in drag and pretending to be Philia, "dead" from the plague. Unfortunately, it turns out that Miles Gloriosus has just returned from Crete, where there is of course no actual plague. With the ruse thus revealed, the main characters run for their lives, resulting in a madcap chase across the stage with both Miles and Senex pursuing all three "Philia"s (Domina, Hysterium, and the actual Philia – all wearing identical white robes and veils). Meanwhile, the courtesans from the house of Marcus Lycus – who had been recruited as mourners at "Philia"'s ersatz funeral – have escaped, and Lycus sends his eunuchs out to bring them all back, adding to the general pandemonium.

Finally, the Captain's troops are able to round everyone up. His plot thoroughly unraveled, Pseudolus appears to be in deep trouble – but Erronius, completing his third circuit of the Roman hills, shows up fortuitously to discover that Miles Gloriosus and Philia are wearing matching rings which mark them as his long-lost children. Philia's betrothal to the Captain is nullified by the unexpected revelation that he's her brother, and, as the daughter of a free-born citizen, she's freed from Marcus Lycus. Philia weds Hero; Pseudolus gets his freedom and the lovely courtesan Gymnasia; Gloriosus receives twin courtesans to replace Philia; and Erronius is reunited with his children. A happy ending prevails for all – except for poor Senex, stuck with his shrewish wife Domina.

Army of Darkness

Having been accidentally transported to the Middle Ages, Ash Williams is captured by Lord Arthur's men, who suspect him of being a spy for Duke Henry, with whom Arthur is at war. He is enslaved along with the captured Henry, his shotgun and chainsaw are confiscated, and he is taken to Arthur's castle. Ash is thrown in a pit where he kills a Deadite and regains his weapons from Arthur's Wise Man. After demanding that Henry and his men be set free and killing a Deadite publicly, Ash is celebrated as a hero. He grows attracted to Sheila, the sister of one of Arthur's fallen knights.

According to the Wise Man, the only way that Ash can return to his time is through the magical ''Necronomicon Ex-Mortis.'' Ash then starts his search for the ''Necronomicon''. As he enters a haunted forest, an unseen force pursues Ash into a windmill, and he crashes into a mirror. Small reflections of Ash in the mirror shards come to life, with one becoming a life-sized copy of him, after which Ash kills and buries it.

When he arrives at the ''Necronomicon'' s location, he finds three books instead of one, and has to determine which one is real. Realizing at the last moment that he has forgotten the last word of the phrase that will allow him to remove the book safely "Klaatu barada nikto" he tries to mumble and cough his way through the pronunciation. He grabs the book and begins rushing back. Meanwhile, unknown to Ash, his ruse has failed and his body's copy rises from the dead, uniting other Deadites into the Army of Darkness.

Upon his return, Ash demands to be returned to his own time. However, Sheila is abducted by a flying Deadite and later transformed into one. Ash becomes determined to lead the outnumbered humans against the Army, and the people reluctantly agree. Using knowledge from textbooks in his 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 and enlisting the help of Duke Henry, Ash successfully leads the soldiers to victory over the Deadites and their captain, saves Sheila, and brings peace between Arthur and Henry. Using a passage from the ''Necronomicon'', the Wise Man tells him how to return to the present by giving him a potion after reciting the same phrase as earlier.

Back in the present, Ash recounts his story to a fellow employee at the S-Mart department store. As he talks to a female co-worker who is interested in his story, a surviving Deadite, present because Ash once again forgot the last word, attacks the customers. Ash kills it using a Winchester rifle and exclaims, "Hail to the king, baby", before passionately kissing the female co-worker.

### Original ending

For the film's original ending, using a passage from the ''Necronomicon'', the Wise Man tells Ash to swallow six drops of the potion to return to the present, unfortunately, due to a distraction by falling rocks, Ash miscalculates the amount of potion needed to be able to correctly return to his own time, swallowing seven instead of six. As a result, he wakes up in a post-apocalyptic future where human civilization is destroyed, and he screams in dismay at having overslept. Universal Pictures objected to this climax, feeling that it was too negative and depressing in tone, and so a more positive and optimistic ending was filmed and ultimately incorporated into the theatrical cut.

The Birth of a Nation

The film consists of two parts of similar length. The first part closes with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, after which there is an intermission. At the New York premiere, Dixon spoke on stage between the parts, reminding the audience that the dramatic version of ''The Clansman'' appeared in that venue nine years previously. "Mr. Dixon also observed that he would have allowed none but the son of a Confederate soldier to direct the film version of ''The Clansman.''"

### Part 1: Civil War of United States

The film follows two juxtaposed families. One is the Northern Stonemans: abolitionist U.S. Representative Austin Stoneman (based on the Reconstruction-era Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania), his daughter, and two sons. The other is the Southern Camerons: Dr. Cameron, his wife, their three sons and two daughters. Phil, the elder Stoneman son, falls in love with Margaret Cameron, during the brothers' visit to the Cameron estate in South Carolina, representing the Old South. Meanwhile, young Ben Cameron (modeled after Leroy McAfee) idolizes a picture of Elsie Stoneman. When the Civil War arrives, the young men of both families enlist in their respective armies. The younger Stoneman and two of the Cameron brothers are killed in combat. Meanwhile, the Cameron women are rescued by Confederate soldiers who rout a black militia after an attack on the Cameron home. Ben Cameron leads a heroic final charge at the Siege of Petersburg, earning the nickname of "the Little Colonel", but he is also wounded and captured. He is then taken to a Union military hospital in Washington, D.C.

During his stay at the hospital, he is told that he will be hanged. Also at the hospital, he meets Elsie Stoneman, whose picture he has been carrying; she is working there as a nurse. Elsie takes Cameron's mother, who had traveled to Washington to tend her son, to see Abraham Lincoln, and Mrs. Cameron persuades the President to pardon Ben. When Lincoln is assassinated at Ford's Theatre, his conciliatory postwar policy expires with him. In the wake of the president's death, Austin Stoneman and other Radical Republicans are determined to punish the South, employing harsh measures that Griffith depicts as having been typical of the Reconstruction Era.

### Part 2: Reconstruction

Stoneman and his protégé Silas Lynch, a psychopathic mulatto (modeled after Alonzo J. Ransier and Richard Howell Gleaves), head to South Carolina to observe the implementation of Reconstruction policies first hand. During the election, in which Lynch is elected lieutenant governor, blacks are observed stuffing the ballot boxes, while many whites are denied the vote. The newly elected, mostly black members of the South Carolina legislature are shown at their desks displaying racially stereotypical behavior, such as one member taking off his shoes and putting his feet up on his desk, and others drinking liquor and eating fried chicken.

Meanwhile, inspired by observing white children pretending to be ghosts to scare black children, Ben fights back by forming the Ku Klux Klan. As a result, Elsie breaks off her relationship with Ben. Later, Flora Cameron goes off alone into the woods to fetch water and is followed by Gus, a freedman and soldier who is now a captain. He confronts Flora and tells her that he desires to get married. Uninterested, she rejects him, but Gus refuses to accept the rejection. Frightened, she flees into the forest, pursued by Gus. Trapped on a precipice, Flora warns Gus she will jump if he comes any closer. When he does, she leaps to her death. Having run through the forest looking for her, Ben has seen her jump; he holds her as she dies, then carries her body back to the Cameron home. In response, the Klan hunts down Gus, tries him, finds him guilty, and lynches him.

Lynch then orders a crackdown on the Klan after discovering Gus's murder. He also secures the passing of legislation allowing mixed-race marriages. Dr. Cameron is arrested for possessing Ben's Klan regalia, now considered a capital crime. He is rescued by Phil Stoneman and a few of his black servants. Together with Margaret Cameron, they flee. When their wagon breaks down, they make their way through the woods to a small hut that is home to two sympathetic former Union soldiers who agree to hide them. An intertitle states, "The former enemies of North and South are united again in common defense of their Aryan birthright."

Congressman Stoneman leaves to avoid being connected with Lt. Gov. Lynch's crackdown. Elsie, learning of Dr. Cameron's arrest, goes to Lynch to plead for his release. Lynch, who had been lusting after Elsie, tries to force her to marry him, which causes her to faint. Stoneman returns, causing Elsie to be placed in another room. At first Stoneman is happy when Lynch tells him he wants to marry a white woman, but he is then angered when Lynch tells him that it is Stoneman's own daughter that he wishes to marry (against her will). Undercover Klansman spies go to get help when they discover Elsie's plight after she breaks a window and cries out for help. Elsie falls unconscious again and revives while gagged and being bound. The Klan gathered together, with Ben leading them, ride in to gain control of the town. When news about Elsie reaches Ben, he and others go to her rescue. Elsie frees her mouth and screams for help. Lynch is captured. Victorious, the Klansmen celebrate in the streets. Meanwhile, Lynch's militia surrounds and attacks the hut where the Camerons are hiding. The Klansmen, with Ben at their head, race in to save them just in time. The next election day, blacks find a line of mounted and armed Klansmen just outside their homes and are intimidated into not voting.

The film concludes with a double wedding as Margaret Cameron marries Phil Stoneman and Elsie Stoneman marries Ben Cameron. The masses are shown oppressed by a giant warlike figure who gradually fades away. The scene shifts to another group finding peace under the image of Jesus Christ. The penultimate title is: "Dare we dream of a golden day when the bestial War shall rule no more. But instead—the gentle Prince in the Hall of Brotherly Love in the City of Peace."

Blade Runner

In November 2019 Los Angeles, former police officer Rick Deckard is detained by Officer Gaff, who likes to make origami figures, and is brought to his former supervisor, Bryant. Deckard, whose job as a "blade runner" was to track down bioengineered humanoids known as replicants and terminally "retire" them, is informed that four replicants are on Earth illegally. Deckard begins to leave, but Bryant ambiguously threatens him and Deckard stays. The two watch a video of a blade runner named Holden administering the Voight-Kampff test, which is designed to distinguish replicants from humans based on their emotional responses to questions. The test subject, Leon, shoots Holden on the second question. Bryant wants Deckard to retire Leon and three other Nexus-6 replicants: Roy Batty, Zhora, and Pris.

Bryant has Deckard meet with the CEO of the company that creates the replicants, Eldon Tyrell, so he can administer the test on a Nexus-6 to see if it works. Tyrell expresses his interest in seeing the test fail first and asks him to administer it on his assistant Rachael. After a much longer than standard test, Deckard concludes privately to Tyrell that Rachael is a replicant who believes she is human. Tyrell explains that she is an experiment who has been given false memories to provide an "emotional cushion", and that she has no knowledge of her true nature.

After searching Leon's hotel room, Deckard finds photos and a synthetic snake scale. Roy and Leon investigate a replicant eye-manufacturing laboratory and learn of J. F. Sebastian, a gifted genetic designer who works closely with Tyrell. Deckard returns to his apartment where Rachael is waiting. She tries to prove her humanity by showing him a family photo, but Deckard reveals that her memories are implants from Tyrell's niece, and she leaves in tears. Meanwhile, Pris locates Sebastian and manipulates him to gain his trust.

A photograph from Leon's apartment and the snake scale lead Deckard to a strip club where Zhora works. After a confrontation and chase, Deckard kills Zhora. Bryant also orders him to retire Rachael, who has disappeared from the Tyrell Corporation. After Deckard spots Rachael in a crowd, he is ambushed by Leon, who knocks the gun out of Deckard's hand and beats him. As Leon is about to kill Deckard, Rachael saves him by using Deckard's gun to kill Leon. They return to Deckard's apartment and, during a discussion, he promises not to track her down. As Rachael abruptly tries to leave, Deckard restrains her and forces her to kiss him, and she ultimately relents.

Deckard leaves Rachael at his apartment and departs to search for the remaining replicants. Upon arriving at Sebastian's apartment, Roy tells Pris that the other replicants are dead. Sebastian reveals that because of a genetic premature aging disorder, his life will be cut short, like the replicants that were built with a four-year lifespan. Roy uses Sebastian to gain entrance to Tyrell's penthouse. He demands more life from his maker, which Tyrell says is impossible. Roy confesses that he has done "questionable things" but Tyrell dismisses this, praising Roy's advanced design and accomplishments in his short life. Roy kisses Tyrell and then kills him by gouging out his eyes. Sebastian tries to flee and is later reported dead.

At Sebastian's apartment, Deckard is ambushed by Pris, but he kills her as Roy returns. Roy's body begins to fail as the end of his lifespan nears. He chases Deckard through the building and onto the roof. Deckard tries to jump onto another roof but is left hanging on the edge. Roy makes the jump with ease and, as Deckard's grip loosens, Roy hoists him onto the roof to save him. Before Roy dies, he laments that his memories "will be lost in time, like tears in rain". Gaff arrives and compliments Deckard, also reminding him that Rachael will not live. Deckard returns to his apartment to retrieve Rachael. While escorting her to the elevator, he notices a small origami unicorn on the floor. He recalls Gaff's words, but leaves with Rachael anyway.

Blazing Saddles

On the American frontier of 1874, a new railroad under construction will have to be rerouted through the town of Rock Ridge in order to avoid quicksand. Realizing this will make Rock Ridge worth millions, conniving territorial attorney general Hedley Lamarr wants to force Rock Ridge's residents to abandon their town, and sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky Taggart, to shoot the sheriff and trash the town. The townspeople demand that Governor William J. Le Petomane appoint a new sheriff to protect them. Lamarr persuades dim-witted Le Petomane to appoint Bart, a Black railroad worker about to be executed for assaulting Taggart. A Black sheriff, Lamarr reasons, will offend the townspeople, create chaos, and leave Rock Ridge at his mercy.

After an initial hostile reception (Bart takes himself "hostage" to escape), he relies on his quick wits and the assistance of Jim, an alcoholic gunslinger known as the "Waco Kid", to overcome the townspeople's hostility. Bart subdues Mongo, an immensely strong, dim-witted, yet philosophical henchman sent to kill him, then outwits German seductress-for-hire Lili Von Shtupp at her own game, with Lili falling in love with him. Upon release, Mongo vaguely informs Bart of Lamarr's connection to the railroad, so Bart and Jim visit the railroad worksite and discover from Bart's best friend Charlie that the railway is planned to go through Rock Ridge. Taggart and his men arrive to kill Bart, but Jim outshoots them and forces their retreat. Lamarr, furious that his schemes have backfired, recruits an army of thugs, including common criminals, motorcycle gangsters, Ku Klux Klansmen, Nazis, and Methodists.

East of Rock Ridge, Bart introduces the white townspeople to the Black, Chinese, and Irish railroad workers who have agreed to help in exchange for acceptance by the community, and explains his plan to defeat Lamarr's army. They labor all night to build a perfect copy of the town as a diversion. When Bart realizes it will not fool the villains, the townsfolk construct copies of themselves. Bart, Jim, and Mongo buy time by constructing the "Gov. William J. Le Petomane Thruway", forcing the raiding party to send for change to pay the toll. Once through the tollbooth, the raiders attack the fake town and its population of dummies, which have been booby-trapped with dynamite. After Jim detonates the bombs with his sharpshooting, launching bad guys and horses skyward, the Rock Ridgers attack the villains.

The resulting brawl between townsfolk, railroad workers, and Lamarr's thugs literally breaks the fourth wall and bursts onto a neighboring movie set where director Buddy Bizarre is filming a Busby Berkeley-style top-hat-and-tails musical number; into the studio commissary for a food fight; and spilling out of the Warner Bros. film lot onto the streets of Burbank. Lamarr, realizing he has been beaten, hails a taxi and orders the cabbie to "drive me off this picture". He ducks into Mann's Chinese Theatre, which is showing the premiere of ''Blazing Saddles''. As he settles into his seat, he sees onscreen Bart arriving on horseback outside the theatre. Bart blocks Lamarr's escape and shoots him in the groin. Bart and Jim then enter Grauman's to watch the end of the film, in which Bart announces to the townspeople that he is moving on because his work is done (and he is bored). Riding out of town, he finds Jim, still eating his popcorn, and invites him along to "nowhere special". The two friends briefly ride into the desert before dismounting and boarding a limousine, which drives off into the sunset.

Blue Velvet (film)

College student Jeffrey Beaumont returns home to Lumberton, North Carolina after his father Tom has a near-fatal stroke. Walking home from the hospital, he cuts through a vacant lot and discovers a severed human ear. Jeffrey takes the ear to police detective John Williams and becomes reacquainted with Williams' daughter, Sandy, who tells him that the ear somehow relates to a lounge singer named Dorothy Vallens. Intrigued, Jeffrey enters Dorothy's apartment by posing as an exterminator and steals a spare key while she is distracted by a man in a distinctive yellow sport coat, whom Jeffrey nicknames the "Yellow Man."

Jeffrey and Sandy attend Dorothy's nightclub act, in which she sings "Blue Velvet", and leave early so Jeffrey can infiltrate her apartment. When Dorothy returns home, she finds him hiding in a closet and nearly fellates him after forcing him to undress at knifepoint. Jeffrey retreats to the closet when Frank Booth, a psychopathic gangster and drug lord, arrives and interrupts their encounter. Frank then proceeds to beat and sexually assault Dorothy while huffing gas from a canister and alternating between fits of sobbing and violent rage. After Frank leaves, Jeffrey sneaks away and seeks comfort from Sandy.

After learning that Frank has abducted Dorothy's husband Don and son Donnie to force her into sex slavery, Jeffrey suspects Frank cut off Don's ear to intimidate her into submission. While continuing to see Sandy simultaneously, Jeffrey also starts a sadomasochistic sexual relationship in which Dorothy encourages him to hit her. Jeffrey sees Frank attending Dorothy's show and later observes him selling drugs and meeting with the Yellow Man.

When Frank catches Jeffrey leaving Dorothy's apartment, he abducts them and brings them to the lair of Ben, a criminal associate who is holding both Don and Donnie hostage. Frank permits Dorothy to see her family and forces Jeffrey to watch Ben perform an impromptu lip-sync of Roy Orbison's "In Dreams", which moves Frank to tears. Afterwards, he and his gang take Jeffrey and Dorothy on a high-speed joyride to a sawmill yard, where he attempts to sexually abuse Dorothy. When Jeffrey intervenes and punches him in the face, an enraged Frank and his gang pull him out of the car, and Frank violently kisses him all over his face with red lipstick, before savagely beating him unconscious. Jeffrey awakes the next morning, bruised and bloodied.

Visiting the police station, Jeffrey realizes that Detective Williams' partner Tom Gordon is the Yellow Man, who has been murdering Frank's rival drug dealers and stealing confiscated narcotics from the evidence room for Frank to sell. After he and Sandy attend a party during which they profess their love for one another, they are pursued by a car which they assume belongs to Frank. As they arrive at Jeffrey's home, Sandy realizes the car belongs to her ex-boyfriend Mike Shaw. After Mike threatens to beat Jeffrey for stealing his girlfriend, Dorothy appears on Jeffrey's porch naked, beaten and confused. Mike backs down as Jeffrey and Sandy whisk Dorothy to Sandy's house to summon medical attention.

When Dorothy calls Jeffrey "my secret lover", a distraught Sandy slaps him for cheating on her. Jeffrey asks Sandy to tell her father everything, and Detective Williams then leads a police raid on Frank's headquarters, killing his men and crippling his criminal empire. Jeffrey returns alone to Dorothy's apartment, where he discovers her husband dead and the Yellow Man mortally wounded. As Jeffrey leaves the apartment, Frank arrives, sees him in the stairs and chases him back inside. Jeffrey uses the Yellow Man's walkie-talkie to lie about his precise location in the apartment and hides in a closet. When Frank arrives, Jeffrey ambushes and kills him with the Yellow Man's gun, moments before Sandy and Detective Williams arrive for help.

Jeffrey and Sandy continue their relationship and Dorothy is reunited with her son.

Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human

Several months after the events depicted in ''Blade Runner'', Deckard has retired to an isolated shack outside the city, taking the replicant Rachael with him in a Tyrell transport container, which slows down the replicant aging process. He is approached by a woman who explains she is Sarah Tyrell, niece of Eldon Tyrell, heiress to the Tyrell Corporation and the human template ("templant") for the Rachael replicant. She asks Deckard to hunt down the "missing" sixth replicant. At the same time, the templant for Roy Batty hires Dave Holden, the blade runner attacked by Leon, to help him hunt down the man he believes is the sixth replicant—Deckard.

Deckard and Holden's investigations lead them to re-visit Sebastian, Bryant, and John Isidore (from the book ''Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?''), learning more about the nature of the blade runners and the replicants.

When Deckard, Batty, and Holden finally clash, Batty's super-human fighting prowess leads Holden to believe he has been duped all along and that Batty is the sixth replicant. He shoots him. Deckard returns to Sarah with his suspicion: there is ''no'' sixth replicant. Sarah, speaking via a remote camera, confesses that she invented and maintained the rumor herself in order to deliberately discredit and eventually destroy the Tyrell Corporation because her uncle Eldon had based Rachel on her and then abandoned the real Sarah. Sarah brings Rachael back to the Corporation to meet with Deckard, and they escape.

However, Holden, recovering from his injuries during the fight, later uncovers the truth: Rachael has been killed by Tyrell agents, and the "Rachael" who escaped with Deckard was actually Sarah. She has completed her revenge by both destroying Tyrell and taking back Rachael's place.

Barry Lyndon

### Part I: ''By What Means Redmond Barry Acquired the Style and Title of Barry Lyndon''

An omniscient (though possibly unreliable) narrator relates that in 1750s Ireland, Redmond Barry's father is killed in a duel over a sale of some horses. The widow devotes herself to her only son. Barry becomes infatuated with his older cousin, Nora Brady. Nora and her family plan to improve their finances through marriage to a well-off British Army captain, John Quin. Barry shoots Quin in a duel, then flees towards Dublin. He is robbed by a highwayman, Captain Feeney. Penniless and dejected, Barry joins the British Army. Later, family friend Captain Grogan informs him that his dueling pistol had been loaded with tow, and Quin is not dead: the duel was staged by Nora's family to get rid of Barry.

Barry's regiment fights in Germany in the Seven Years' War. Grogan is fatally wounded in a skirmish. Fed up with the war, Barry deserts. En route to neutral Holland, he encounters Frau Lieschen. The two briefly become lovers. After leaving, Barry encounters the Prussian Captain Potzdorf, who, seeing through his disguise, offers him the choice of being handed over to the British to be shot or enlisting in the Prussian Army. Barry enlists and later receives a special commendation from Prussian King Frederick II for saving Potzdorf's life in a battle.

Two years later, after the war ends in 1763, Barry is employed by Captain Potzdorf's uncle in the Prussian Ministry of Police. The Prussians suspect the Chevalier de Balibari, an itinerant professional gambler, of spying for the Austrians, and have Barry become his servant. Barry reveals everything to the Chevalier, a fellow Irishman. They become confederates. After they cheat the Prince of Tübingen at cards, the Prince accuses the Chevalier of cheating (without proof) and refuses to pay his debt and demands satisfaction. Barry's Prussian handlers, still suspecting that the Chevalier is a spy, arrange for the Chevalier to be expelled from the country. Alerted by Barry, the Chevalier flees in the night. The next morning, Barry, disguised as the Chevalier, is escorted from Prussia.

Over the next few years, Barry and the Chevalier travel across Europe, profiting from their gambling scams, with Barry forcing payment from reluctant debtors with sword duels. In Spa, he encounters the beautiful and wealthy Countess of Lyndon. He seduces and later marries her after the death of her elderly husband, Sir Charles Lyndon (caused by Barry's goading and verbal repartee).

### Part II: ''Containing an Account of the Misfortunes and Disasters Which Befell Barry Lyndon''

In 1773, Barry takes the Countess' last name and settles in England to enjoy her wealth. Lord Bullingdon, Lady Lyndon's ten-year-old son by Sir Charles, quickly comes to despise Barry. Barry retaliates by systematically physically abusing Bullingdon. The Countess bears Barry a son, Bryan Patrick, but the marriage is unhappy: Barry is openly unfaithful and enjoys spending his wife's money, while keeping her in seclusion.

Some years later, Barry's mother comes to live with him at the Lyndon estate. She warns her son that if Lady Lyndon were to die, Lord Bullingdon would inherit everything. Barry's mother advises him to obtain a noble title to protect himself. Toward this goal, he cultivates the acquaintance of the influential Lord Wendover and spends large sums of money to ingratiate himself to high society. However, a now adult Lord Bullingdon crashes a lavish birthday party Barry throws for Lady Lyndon. He publicly explains why he detests his stepfather and declares he will leave the family estate for as long as Barry remains there and married to his mother. Barry viciously assaults Bullingdon until he is physically restrained. This causes him to be cast out of polite society.

Barry proves an overindulgent father to Bryan and gives him a full-grown horse for his ninth birthday. Bryan is thrown from the horse and dies a few days later. The grief-stricken Barry turns to alcohol, while Lady Lyndon seeks solace in religion, assisted by the Rev. Samuel Runt, who had been tutor to Lord Bullingdon and Bryan. Barry's mother dismisses Runt, both because the family no longer needs (nor can afford, due to Barry's spending debts) a tutor and for fear that his influence will worsen Lady Lyndon's condition. Lady Lyndon later attempts suicide. Runt and Graham, the family's accountant, then seek out Lord Bullingdon, who returns and challenges Barry to a duel.

A coin toss gives Bullingdon the first shot, but he nervously misfires his pistol. Terrified, he demands another chance, but is refused. Barry magnanimously fires into the ground, but Bullingdon refuses to let the duel end. In the second round, Bullingdon shoots Barry in the leg. The leg has to be amputated below the knee. While Barry is recovering, Bullingdon takes control of the Lyndon estate. A few days later, he offers Barry 500 guineas a year provided he leave England and never return. With his credit exhausted, Barry accepts. The narrator states that Barry resumes his former profession of gambler (though without his former success) and never returns. In December 1789, a middle-aged Lady Lyndon signs Barry's annuity cheque as her son looks on.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)

High school senior Buffy Summers (Kristy Swanson) attends Hemery High School in Los Angeles; her main concerns are shopping and spending time with her rich, snooty friends and her boyfriend, Jeffrey Kramer (Randall Batinkoff). While at school one day, she is approached by a man who calls himself Merrick (Donald Sutherland). He informs her that she is The Slayer, or Chosen One, destined to kill vampires, and he is a Watcher whose duty it is to guide and train her. She initially rejects his claim but changes her mind when he vividly describes a recurring dream of hers. Additionally, Buffy is exhibiting uncanny abilities not known to her, including heightened agility, senses, and endurance, yet she repeatedly tries Merrick's patience with her frivolous nature, indifference to slaying, and sharp-tongued remarks.

After several successful outings, Buffy is drawn into conflict with Lothos (Rutger Hauer), a local vampire king and his acolyte, Amilyn (Paul Reubens). Two young men, Oliver Pike (Luke Perry) and Benny Jacks (David Arquette), who resented Buffy and her friends due to differing social circles, are out drinking when they're attacked by Amilyn. Benny is turned, but Pike is saved by Merrick. As a vampire, Benny visits Pike and tries to get him to join him. Later, when Pike and his boss are discussing Benny, Pike tells him to run if he sees him.

Amilyn also abducts Cassandra (Natasha Gregson Wagner), a studious girl from Buffy's class, to sacrifice to Lothos. When her body is found, the news spreads through Los Angeles and Hemery High, but her murder is met with indifference from Buffy's clique.

When Pike realizes there's something wrong with Benny and that he's no longer safe, he decides to leave town. His plan is thwarted, however, when he encounters Amilyn and his gang of vampires. Amilyn hitches a ride on the hood of his van, which crashes into a tree just before Amilyn loses an arm. Buffy and Merrick arrive to rescue him and Amilyn leaves the fight to talk to Lothos. After this encounter, Buffy and Pike start a friendship that eventually becomes romantic, and Pike becomes Buffy's partner in fighting the undead.

During a basketball game, Buffy discovers that Grueller, one of the players and a friend of Jeffrey's, is a vampire. After a quick chase to a parade float storage yard, Buffy confronts Lothos, shortly after she and Pike take down his gang. Lothos puts Buffy into a trance, but Merrick intervenes, breaking the trance. Lothos stabs Merrick with the stake he attempted to use on him and then leaves, saying Buffy is not ready. As Merrick dies, he tells Buffy to do things her own way rather than live by the rules of others and gives her one final clue: "Remember about the music."

Because of her new life, its responsibilities, and the heartbreak of losing her Watcher, Buffy, emotionally shocked, starts neglecting her Slayer duties. When she arrives at school, she attempts to explain things to her friends, but they refuse to understand her, as they are more concerned with an upcoming school dance. Buffy abandons them as she realizes she has outgrown their immature, selfish behavior.

At the senior dance, Buffy is dismayed to find Jeffrey has dumped her for one of her friends. She meets up with Pike, reciprocate their feelings as they dance and kiss. However, Lothos sends his army of vampire minions to the school to attack the classmates at the dance.

Buffy confronts the vampires outside, while inside the gym Pike fights and kills the vampiric Benny and everybody is able to fight back under his lead. After overpowering the vampire army, Buffy confronts Lothos inside the school and seemingly kills Amilyn. Lothos attempts to ensorcel Buffy again, but when the dance music stops, she remembers Merrick's words and defends herself.

She first tries to repel Lothos with a cross, but the vampire king is unimpressed. He grabs the cross, setting it afire, but Buffy uses her hair spray as a makeshift flamethrower and burns him before escaping to the gym. Buffy sees her classmates recovering from the vampire attack, but Lothos bursts into the gym, promising to kill everyone. The Slayer and vampire duel, a wooden flag staff versus a katana. Eventually, Buffy stakes Lothos and kills him.

As the survivors leave, Buffy and Pike decide to finish their dance. The film ends with the couple leaving the dance on a motorcycle. A skeptical news crew headed up by Liz Smith interviews the students and the principal about the vampire attack during the credits. An after credits scene shows Amilyn survived the attack.

The Big O

After failing to negotiate with terrorists at the cost of his client's life, Roger Smith is obligated to care for Dorothy Wayneright, a young female android. Over the course of the series, Roger Smith continues to accept negotiation work from the residents of Paradigm City, he often leads to uncovering the nature and mystery of Paradigm City and encountering megadeus or other giant enemies that require Big O. Supporting characters are Angel, a mysterious woman in search of memories; Dan Dastun, chief of the military police of Paradigm city and old friend of Roger Smith; and Norman Burg, the butler of Roger Smith and mechanic of Big O.

The main antagonist is Alex Rosewater, chairman of Paradigm City whose goal is to revive the megadeus "Big Fau" in attempts to become the god of Paradigm City. Other recurring antagonists are Jason Beck, criminal and con-artist attempting to humiliate Roger Smith; Schwarzwald, an ex-reporter obsessed with finding the truth of Paradigm City and also pilot of the megadeus "Big Duo"; Vera Ronstadt, leader of a group of foreigners known as the Union searching for memories and revenge against Paradigm City; and Alan Gabriel, a cyborg assassin working for Alex Rosewater and the Union.

The series ends with the awakening of a new megadeus, and the revelation that the world is a simulated reality. A climactic battle ensues between Big O and Big Fau, after which reality is systematically erased by the new megadeus, an incarnation of Angel, recognized as "Big Venus" by Dorothy. Roger implores Angel to "let go of the past" regardless of its existential reality, and focus only on the present and the future. In an isolated control room, the real Angel observes Roger and her past encounters with him on a series of television monitors. On the control panel lies ''Metropolis'', a book featured prominently since the thirteenth episode; the cover features an illustration of angel wings and gives the author's name as "Angel Rosewater". Big Venus and Big O physically merge, causing the virtual reality to reset. The final scene shows Roger Smith driving down a restored Paradigm city with Dorothy and Angel observing him from the side of the road.

Braveheart

In 1280, King Edward "Longshanks" invades and conquers Scotland following the death of Alexander III of Scotland, who left no heir to the throne. Young William Wallace witnesses Longshanks' execution of several Scottish nobles, suffers the deaths of his father and brother fighting against the English, and is taken abroad on a pilgrimage throughout Europe by his paternal uncle Argyle, who has Wallace educated.

Years later, Longshanks grants his noblemen land and privileges in Scotland, including ''jus primae noctis''. Meanwhile, a grown Wallace returns to Scotland and falls in love with his childhood friend Murron MacClannough, and the two marry in secret. Wallace rescues Murron from being raped by English soldiers, but as Wallace fights off the soldiers Murron is captured and publicly executed. In retribution, Wallace leads his clan to fight the English garrison in his hometown and sends the surviving garrison back to England with a message of rebellion for Longshanks.

Longshanks orders his son Prince Edward to stop Wallace by any means necessary while he visits the French King to secure England's alliance with France. Alongside his friend Hamish, Wallace rebels against the English, and as his legend spreads, hundreds of Scots from the surrounding clans join him. Wallace leads his army to victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge where he decapitates the English commander Cheltham. Prince Edward fails to send reinforcements to York, enabling Wallace to sack the city, killing Longshanks' nephew whose severed head is sent to the king. Wallace seeks the assistance of Robert the Bruce, the son of nobleman Robert the Elder, a contender for the Scottish crown. Robert is dominated by his leper father, who wishes to secure the Scottish throne for his son by submitting to the English. Worried by the threat of the rebellion, Longshanks sends his son's wife Isabella of France to try to negotiate with Wallace as a distraction for the landing of another invasion force in Scotland.

After meeting him in person, Isabella becomes enamored of Wallace. She warns him of the coming invasion, and Wallace implores the Scottish nobility to take immediate action to counter the threat and take back their country, asking Robert the Bruce to lead. Leading the English army himself, Longshanks confronts the Scots at Falkirk. During the battle, Scottish noblemen Mornay and Lochlan, having been bribed by Longshanks, withdraw their men, resulting in Wallace's army being routed and the death of Hamish's father, Campbell. Wallace is further betrayed when he discovers Robert the Bruce was fighting alongside Longshanks; after the battle, seeing the damage he helped do to his countrymen, Robert reprimands his father and vows never to be on the wrong side again.

Wallace kills Lochlan and Mornay for their betrayal, and wages a guerrilla war against the English assisted by Isabella, with whom he eventually has an affair. Robert sets up a meeting with Wallace in Edinburgh, but Robert's father conspires with other nobles to capture and hand over Wallace to the English. Learning of his treachery, Robert disowns and banishes his father. Isabella exacts revenge on the now terminally ill Longshanks, who can no longer speak, by telling him that his bloodline will be destroyed upon his death as she is pregnant with Wallace's child and will ensure that Prince Edward spends as short a time as possible on the throne before Wallace's child replaces him.

In London, Wallace is brought before an English magistrate, tried for high treason, and condemned to public torture and beheading. Even whilst being hanged, drawn and quartered, Wallace refuses to submit to the king. The watching crowd, deeply moved by the Scotsman's valor, begin crying for mercy on Wallace's behalf. The magistrate offers him one final chance, asking him only to utter the word, "Mercy", and be granted a quick death. Wallace instead shouts, "Freedom!", and his cry rings through the square, the dying Longshanks hearing it. Before being beheaded, Wallace sees a vision of Murron in the crowd, smiling at him.

In 1314, Robert, now Scotland's king, leads a Scottish army before a ceremonial line of English troops on the fields of Bannockburn, where he is supposed to formally accept English rule. Instead, he invokes Wallace's memory, imploring his men to fight with him as they did with Wallace. Hamish throws Wallace's sword point-down in front of the English army, and he and the Scots chant Wallace's name as Robert leads them into battle against the English, winning the Scots their freedom.

Batman (1989 film)

As Gotham City approaches its bicentennial, Mayor Borg orders district attorney Harvey Dent and police Commissioner Gordon to make the city safer by incarcerating mob boss Carl Grissom. Meanwhile, reporter Alexander Knox and photojournalist Vicki Vale investigate sightings of a masked vigilante called "Batman" who is targeting the city's criminals. Both attend a fundraiser hosted by billionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne, who is secretly Batman, having chosen this path after witnessing a mugger murder his parents when he was a child. During the event, Wayne becomes infatuated with Vale, but interrupts their meeting to secretly pursue Gordon when he leaves on police business.

Grissom sends his sociopathic second-in-command Jack Napier to raid Axis Chemicals to retrieve incriminating evidence, though it is a cover to have Napier murdered for sleeping with his mistress Alicia Hunt. Although corrupt police lieutenant Max Eckhardt arranges the hit on Napier by conducting an unauthorized police operation, Gordon arrives, takes command, and orders officers to capture Napier alive as a potential witness. Batman also arrives to catch Napier, who kills Eckhardt as revenge for double-crossing him. During a scuffle with Batman, Napier topples off a catwalk and falls into a vat of acidic chemicals. Although presumed dead, Napier survives with various disfigurements including chalk white skin and emerald green hair and nails. He undergoes surgery to repair the damage, but ends up with a rictus grin. Driven insane by his new appearance, Napier, now calling himself "the Joker", kills Grissom at his estate, massacres Grissom's associates, and takes over his operations.

Batman researches a way to stop the Joker from terrorizing Gotham with hygiene products laced with "Smylex" – a deadly chemical that causes victims to die laughing. The Joker soon becomes obsessed with Vicki and lures her to the Gotham Museum of Art, where his henchmen destroy the works of art within. Batman arrives and rescues Vicki before taking her to his Batcave, providing her with all of his research on Smylex that will allow the city's residents to escape the toxin. Conflicted with his love for her, Wayne visits her apartment intending to reveal his secret identity, only for the Joker to interrupt the meeting. The Joker asks Wayne, "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?", which Wayne recognizes as the catchphrase used by the mugger who killed his parents. The Joker shoots Wayne, but he survives thanks to a serving tray hidden underneath his shirt. Wayne escapes while the Joker is distracted. At the Batcave, Wayne reminisces on his parents' murder and realizes that the Joker killed them.

Vicki is taken to the Batcave by Wayne's butler, Alfred, who had been coaxing the relationship between the pair to bring out Wayne's human side. After exposing his secret to Vicki, Wayne reveals he cannot focus on their relationship with the Joker on the loose and departs to destroy the Axis plant used to create Smylex. Meanwhile, the Joker lures Gotham's citizens to a parade with the promise of free money, in order to dose them with Smylex gas held within giant parade balloons. Batman foils his plan by using his Batwing to remove the balloons, but the Joker shoots him down. The Batwing crashes in front of a cathedral, and the Joker takes Vicki hostage within it. Batman pursues the Joker to the top of the cathedral, and in the ensuing fight, he reveals that he knows Napier killed his parents and thus, indirectly created Batman before the latter created the Joker, leading the Joker to realize Batman is Bruce Wayne. The Joker eventually pulls Batman and Vicki over the balcony of the cathedral, leaving them hanging while he attempts to escape by calling in a helicopter piloted by his goons, who throw down a ladder for him to climb. However, Batman uses a grappling hook to attach the Joker's leg to a gargoyle. The crumbling gargoyle falls off the roof and pulls down on the Joker due to its weight. Unable to bear its immense weight, the Joker falls to his death while Batman and Vicki make it to safety.

Sometime later, Gordon announces that the police have arrested all of the Joker's men and unveils the Bat-Signal. Dent reads a note from Batman, promising that he will defend Gotham should crime strike again, and asks them to use the Bat-Signal to summon him in times of need. Alfred takes Vicki to Wayne Manor, explaining that Wayne will be a little late. She responds that she is not surprised, as Batman looks at the signal's projection from a rooftop, standing watch over the city.

Batman (1966 film)

When Batman and Robin get a tip that Commodore Schmidlapp is in danger aboard his yacht, they launch a rescue mission using the Batcopter. As Batman descends on the bat-ladder to land on the yacht, it suddenly vanishes beneath him. He rises out of the sea with a shark attacking his leg. After Batman dislodges it with bat-shark repellent, the shark explodes. Batman and Robin head back to Commissioner Gordon's office, where they deduce that the tip was a set-up by the United Underworld, a gathering of four of the most powerful villains in Gotham City: the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, and the Catwoman.

The four criminals equip themselves with a dehydrator that can turn humans into dust (an invention of Schmidlapp's, who is unaware that he has been kidnapped), escape in a war-surplus, pre-atomic submarine made to resemble a penguin, and recruit three pirate-themed henchmen (Bluebeard, Morgan and Quetch). Batman and Robin learn that the yacht was really a holographic projection and return via Batboat to a buoy concealing a projector, where they are trapped on the buoy by a magnet and targeted by torpedoes. They use a radio-detonator to destroy two of the missiles, and a porpoise sacrifices itself to intercept the last one. Catwoman, disguised as Soviet journalist "Kitayna Ireyna Tatanya Kerenska Alisoff" (acronymed as Kitka), helps the group kidnap Bruce Wayne and pretends to be kidnapped with him, as part of a plot to lure Batman and finish him off with another of Penguin's explosive animals (not knowing that Bruce Wayne is Batman's alter-ego).

After Bruce Wayne fights his way out of captivity, he again disguises himself as Batman, and the Dynamic Duo returns to the United Underworld's HQ, only to find a smoking bomb. Batman is met with frustration rushing all over the docks in hopes of locating a safe place to dispose of the bomb but does so in the nick of time. The Penguin disguises himself as the Commodore and schemes his way into the Batcave along with five dehydrated henchmen. This plan fails when the henchmen unexpectedly disappear into antimatter once struck: the Penguin mistakenly rehydrated them with toxic heavy water used to recharge the Batcave's atomic pile, leaving them highly unstable. Ultimately, Batman and Robin are unable to prevent the kidnapping of the dehydrated United World Organization's Security Council, consisting of ambassadors from Japan, the U.S, the U.S.S.R., Israel, France, Spain, West Germany, the United Kingdom, and Nigeria. Giving chase in the Batboat to retrieve them (and Miss Kitka, presumed by the duo as still captive), Robin uses a sonic charge weapon to disable The Penguin's submarine and force it to surface, where a fist fight ensues.

Although Batman and Robin come out on top, Batman is heartbroken to discover that his "true love" Miss Kitka is actually Catwoman when her mask falls off. Commodore Schmidlapp accidentally breaks the powdered Council members' vials and sneezes on them, scattering the dust. Batman sets to work, constructing an elaborate Super Molecular Dust Separator to filter the mingled dust. Robin asks him whether it might be in the world's best interests for them to alter the dust samples so that humans can no longer harm one another. In response, Batman says that they cannot do so, reminding Robin of the fate of the Penguin's henchmen and their tainted rehydration, and can only hope for people, in general, to learn to live together peacefully on their own.

With the world watching, the Security Council is re-hydrated. All members are restored alive and well, but continue to squabble amongst themselves, totally oblivious of their surroundings; however, each of them now speaks the language and displays the stereotypical mannerisms of a nation other than their own. Batman quietly expresses his sincere hope to Robin that this "strange mixing of minds" does more good than harm. The duo quietly leaves United World Headquarters by climbing out of the window and descending on their bat-ropes.

Batman Returns

Two wealthy socialites, dismayed at the birth of their malformed and feral son, Oswald Cobblepot, discard the infant in the sewers, where he is adopted by a family of penguins.

Thirty-three years later, during the Christmas season, wealthy industrialist Max Shreck is abducted by the Red Triangle gang, a cadre of former circus workers connected to multiple child disappearances across the nation, and brought to their hideout in the arctic exhibit at the derelict Gotham Zoo. Red Triangle's leader, Oswald – now named Penguin – blackmails Shreck, using recovered evidence of his corruption and murderous acts, to force his assistance in reintegrating Oswald back into Gotham's elite. Shreck orchestrates a staged kidnapping attempt on the mayor's infant child, allowing Oswald to rescue it and become a public hero. In exchange, Oswald requests access to the city's birth records, ostensibly to learn his true identity, while identifying Gotham's first-born sons.

Shreck attempts to kill his meek secretary, Selina Kyle, by pushing her out of a window after she inadvertently uncovers his plot to build a power plant that will covertly siphon and hoard electricity from Gotham. However, she survives, returns home and, in her anger, crafts herself a costume and takes the name Catwoman. Selina later returns to work confident and aggressive, catching the attention of visiting billionaire Bruce Wayne. As his alter-ego, the vigilante Batman, Wayne investigates Oswald, suspicious he is connected to Red Triangle. To eliminate opposition to his plant, Shreck convinces Oswald to run for mayor and discredit the incumbent by having Red Triangle cause havoc throughout Gotham. Batman's efforts to stop Red Triangle eventually bring him into conflict with Catwoman. Selina and Wayne begin dating, while Catwoman allies with Oswald to disgrace Batman.

On the night of the city Christmas tree lighting, Oswald and Catwoman kidnap the Ice Princess, Gotham's beauty queen, and lure Batman to the roof above the ceremony. Oswald pushes the Ice Princess to her death with a swarm of bats, framing Batman. When Catwoman objects to the murder and rejects his romantic advances, Oswald attacks her and she falls through a glasshouse. Batman escapes in the Batmobile, unaware Red Triangle has modified it, allowing Oswald to take it on a remote-controlled rampage. Before regaining control, Batman records Oswald's derogatory tirade against Gotham's citizens. The following day, Batman plays the audio at Oswald's mayoral rally, ruining his image and forcing him to retreat to Gotham Zoo. Oswald forsakes his humanity and embraces the name Penguin, initiating his true plan to abduct and kill Gotham's firstborn sons to avenge his own abandonment.

Selina attempts to kill Shreck at his charity ball, but Wayne intervenes and the pair inadvertently realize each other's secret identities. Penguin crashes the event to kidnap Shreck's son, Chip, but Shreck volunteers himself instead. Batman neutralizes Red Triangle and stops the kidnapping, forcing Penguin to deploy his missile-equipped penguin army to destroy Gotham. Batman's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, overrides the penguins' control signal and redirects them back to Gotham Zoo. As the missiles destroy the zoo, Batman unleashes a swarm of bats that causes Penguin to fall into the contaminated waters of the arctic exhibit. Catwoman arrives to kill Shreck, rejecting Batman's plea to abandon her vengeance and leave with him. Catwoman is shot four times by Shreck, seemingly without effect as she claims to have two of her nine lives remaining. She electrocutes Shreck, causing an explosive power surge that seemingly kills the pair, but Batman finds only Shreck's charred remains. Penguin returns, but succumbs to his injuries before he can attack Batman, and is laid to rest in the water by his penguins. Sometime later, while Alfred drives him home, Wayne sees Selina's silhouette, but finds only a cat that he takes with him. The Bat-Signal shines above the city as Catwoman looks on.

Batman & Robin (film)

Batman and his partner, Robin, encounter a new foe, Mr. Freeze, who has left a string of diamond robberies in his wake. During a confrontation in the natural history museum, Freeze steals a bigger diamond and flees, freezing Robin and leaving Batman unable to pursue him. Later, Batman and Robin learn that Freeze was originally Dr. Victor Fries, a scientist working to develop a cure for MacGregor's Syndrome, hoping to heal his terminally ill wife, Nora. After a lab accident, Fries was rendered unable to live at average temperatures and forced to wear a cryogenic suit powered by diamonds for survival.

At a Wayne Enterprises lab in Brazil, botanist Dr. Pamela Isley is working under the deranged Dr. Jason Woodrue, who has turned her research on plants into the supersoldier drug Venom. After witnessing Woodrue use the formula to turn serial killer Antonio Diego into the hulking "Bane", she threatens to expose Woodrue's experiments. Woodrue attempts to kill her by overturning a shelf of various toxins; instead, Isley is mutated by the toxins into "Poison Ivy". Ivy kills Woodrue, destroys the lab, and escapes to Gotham City with Bane, concocting a plan to use Wayne's money to support her research. Meanwhile, Alfred Pennyworth's niece, Barbara Wilson, makes a surprise visit and is invited by Bruce to stay at Wayne Manor until she goes back to school.

Wayne Enterprises presents a new telescope for Gotham Observatory at a press conference interrupted by Isley. She proposes a project that could help the environment, but Bruce declines her offer, which would kill millions of people. Batman and Robin decide to lure Freeze out using the Wayne Family diamonds and present them at a Wayne Enterprises charity event. Ivy attends the event and decides to use her abilities to seduce Batman and Robin. Freeze crashes the party, but is defeated and detained in Arkham Asylum. Ivy takes an interest in Freeze and frees him from Arkham. Dick discovers that Barbara has been participating in drag races to raise money for Alfred, who is dying of MacGregor's Syndrome; a fact he kept from Bruce and Dick.

Batman, Robin, and the police arrive at Freeze's lair in response to his escape, discovering Nora preserved in a cryogenic chamber, and that Freeze has developed a cure for the early stages of MacGregor's Syndrome. Freeze, Ivy, and Bane secretly arrive to recover Freeze's diamonds and Nora. Wanting Freeze for herself, Ivy unplugs Nora's chamber, steals the diamonds, and seduces Robin; escalating tensions between him and Batman. At Ivy's hideout, Ivy convinces Freeze that Batman has killed Nora. Freeze swears to freeze all of humanity in revenge, with Ivy planning to repopulate the earth using her mutant plants afterward.

Freeze and Bane commandeer Gotham Observatory and convert the new telescope into a giant freeze ray, while Ivy uses the Bat-Signal to contact Robin. Robin attempts to go after Ivy alone, but Batman convinces him not to fall for Ivy's seduction. Barbara discovers the Batcave, where an AI version of Alfred reveals he has made Barbara her own suit. Barbara dons the suit and becomes Batgirl, arriving at Ivy's lair in time to help Batman and Robin subdue her.

Freeze begins to encase Gotham in ice, and Batman, Robin, and Batgirl head to Gotham Observatory together to stop him. Batman defeats Freeze in combat, while Batgirl and Robin incapacitate Bane and thaw the city. Freeze accuses Batman of killing Nora, only to be shown a recording of Ivy admitting to the crime. Batman reveals that Nora is still alive and offers Freeze the chance to continue his research on MacGregor's Syndrome in exchange for his cure. Freeze accepts and returns to Arkham, where he is imprisoned in the same cell as Ivy, and vows to make her life miserable for her actions against Nora. Alfred receives the cure, and Bruce and Dick agree to let Barbara join them in fighting crime.

Batman Forever

In Gotham City, costumed vigilante Batman defuses a hostage situation orchestrated by an arch-criminal known as Two-Face, formerly district attorney Harvey Dent. Flashbacks reveal that Two-Face was disfigured with acid by mob kingpin Salvatore Maroni, which Batman failed to prevent, causing Dent to develop a split personality. Edward Nygma, an eccentric researcher at Wayne Enterprises, approaches his employer, Bruce Wayne (Batman's secret identity), with an invention that can beam television signals directly into a person's brain. Bruce rejects the device, concerned the technology could manipulate minds. After killing his supervisor and staging it as a suicide, Nygma resigns and plots revenge against Bruce, sending him riddles. Criminal psychologist Dr. Chase Meridian diagnoses Nygma as psychotic.

Bruce attends a Haly's Circus event with Chase. Bruce asks Chase on a date, but she professes to be romantically interested in Batman instead. Two-Face hijacks the event and threatens to detonate a bomb unless Batman surrenders. Dick Grayson, the youngest member of the Flying Graysons, manages to throw the bomb into the river, but Two-Face kills his family. Bruce persuades the orphaned Dick to live at Wayne Manor as his ward, and Dick discovers Bruce is Batman.

Determined to avenge his family, Dick demands to join Batman in crime-fighting, hoping to kill Two-Face, but Bruce refuses, telling Dick that such an act will only make his pain worse. This internal struggle as to why Bruce feels compelled to continue as Batman even after the death of the Joker has been giving Bruce nightmares, for which he has been seeing Dr. Meridian. She gifts him a Malaysian dream warden, which it is believed helps keep away bad dreams.

Nygma, inspired by Two-Face, adopts a criminal persona, the Riddler, and allies with Two-Face. Two-Face agrees to help the Riddler steal production capital to finance Nygma's new company "Nygmatech" and in exchange, the Riddler promises to help deduce the identity of Batman so Two-Face can get revenge. They commit a series of robberies to finance Nygma's new company and help mass-produce his brainwave device, the "Box", which steals information from users' minds and transfers it to Nygma's, which makes him smarter but slowly begins to damage his mind in the process.

At a party hosted by Nygma, an updated and improved version of the Box is revealed that can project fantasies - not just television programs - directly into the human mind. Bruce deduces that if Nygma can project fantasies into the mind, he can also extract thoughts, memories, and information out of the mind. Bruce disables the Box and attempts to investigate, but the villains turn on the machine while Bruce is inside. While the Box is mapping Bruce's mind, an impatient Two-Face crashes the event in an attempt to draw out Batman. Bruce changes into his suit and as Batman pursues Two-Face through Gotham. In an abandoned subway, he is almost killed by Two-Face, but is saved by Dick.

At the urging of his butler and father-figure Alfred, Bruce, disguised as Batman, visits Chase to profess his feelings for her. However, Chase explains that she has fallen in love with Bruce. As Bruce, he invites her over to Wayne Manor to reveal to her his secret identity. However, the Riddler and Two-Face, having discovered Bruce's secret through the Box, invade Wayne Manor, assault Alfred, blow up the Batcave, shoot Bruce, and kidnap Chase. As Bruce recovers, he and Alfred deduce that Nygma is the Riddler when they figure out the final clue to his riddle. In retaliation for the attack, Bruce sets off to save Chase and fight the Riddler and Two-Face when Dick approaches him in the cave, offering his assistance. Bruce finally accepts Dick as Batman's partner, Robin.

At the Riddler's lair inside Nygmatech headquarters, Robin almost kills Two-Face but spares him, who holds him at gunpoint. The Riddler reveals that Chase and Robin are bound and gagged in tubes above a deadly drop, giving Batman the chance to save only one - his love or his partner - and asking if Bruce Wayne and Batman can ever truly co-exist. Batman distracts the Riddler with a riddle, before destroying the Riddler's brainwave receiver with a Batarang, overflowing the Riddler's mind and disabling him, and allowing Batman to rescue both Robin and Chase. Two-Face corners them and determines their fate by flipping a coin, but Batman throws a handful of identical coins in the air, causing Two-Face to stumble in confusion trying to find the right one and fall to his death. Batman apprehends the Riddler and tells him that he is both Bruce Wayne and Batman, not because he needs to be, but because he chooses to be. Revenge is no longer Batman’s all-consuming motivation and he has come to terms with his duality.

Committed to Arkham Asylum, Nygma now exclaims that he is Batman, due to his scrambled memories, which leads Chase to remark that he is truly insane. Bruce returns the Malaysian dream warden, remarking he no longer needs it. Bruce resumes his crusade as Batman, with Robin as his partner.

Batman: Year One

Billionaire Bruce Wayne returns home to Gotham City after 12 years abroad, training for his eventual one-man war against crime. James Gordon moves to Gotham City with his wife, Barbara Gordon, after a transfer from Chicago. Both are swiftly acquainted with the corruption and violent atmosphere of the city. Gordon tries to focus on purging corruption from the Gotham City Police Department after witnessing his partner, Detective Arnold John Flass, abuses his power as a cop. Unfortunately, several officers led by Flass beat him on the orders from his corrupt superior, Commissioner Gillian Loeb. In revenge, Gordon tracks Flass down, beats him, and leaves him naked and handcuffed in the snow.

Bruce believes he is still unprepared to fight against crime despite having the skills he learned from abroad. He goes in disguise on a surveillance mission in Gotham's red-light district, but is reluctantly drawn into a brawl with several prostitutes, Holly Robinson and Selina Kyle. Two police officers shoot Bruce on sight and take him away in their patrol car. Bruce breaks free, flees from the scene and returns to Wayne Manor barely alive. He sits before his father's bust, requesting guidance in his war against crime. A bat suddenly crashes through a window and settles on the bust, inspiring him to save Gotham as Batman.

After weeks of Bruce striking as Batman, crime and corruption start to decline. He even goes after Flass, who is in the middle of accepting a bribe from Jefferson Skeevers, a drug dealer of Carmine Falcone. Batman interrupts a dinner party held at the mansion of Gotham's mayor and announces that everyone in the party shall be brought to justice for their crimes someday. Infuriated by Batman's threats, Loeb orders Gordon and GCPD Sergeant Sarah Essen to arrest him. The two cops later come across a runaway truck that nearly hits an old lady. Batman manages to save her life while Gordon stops the truck. Batman then flees into an abandoned building where Loeb immediately orders a bomb dropped on. He also sends in a SWAT team led by a trigger-happy commander, Branden, to kill any survivors left in the building. Batman uses a signal device to attract a swarm of bats from the Batcave as his only route to escape. After witnessing Batman in action, Selina is inspired to don a costume of her own and begin a life of crime.

Gordon and Essen have a brief affair together and spend two months dating. She, however, chooses to leave Gotham upon learning he is going to be the father of Barbara's unborn child. Gordon is left alone to investigate Bruce's connection to Batman. He travels to Wayne Manor with Barbara to interrogate Bruce, who uses his playboy charms to divert suspicion. While leaving the manor, Gordon confesses his affair with Essen to Barbara. Skeevers gets bailed with the help of a hired lawyer, but is attacked by Batman shortly after. He convinces Skeever to testify against Flass. Loeb orders the assassination of Skeevers so that he remains silent about the ties between the police force and the mafia, although Skeevers survives after all.

Batman sneaks into Falcone's manor and overhears him and his nephew, Johnny Viti. Falcone wants to target Gordon's family, so Bruce disguises himself as a motorcyclist to help Gordon. Gordon leaves home on Loeb's orders, but becomes suspicious and turns back only to discover Viti and his men already holding his family hostage. Viti flees the scene with Gordon's infant son. Gordon chases after him on Bruce's motorcycle. The two men end up fighting on a bridge until the baby falls. Bruce catches up on time and leaps over the bridge's railing to save the baby. Gordon thanks Bruce for saving his infant son's life and lets him go. Flass supplies Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent with the evidence and testimony needed to implicate Loeb, who resigns in disgrace. Gordon is promoted to captain and prepares to investigate with Batman a potential plot by a criminal calling himself the Joker.

Bubblegum Crisis

The series begins in late 2032, seven years after the Second Great Kanto earthquake has split Tokyo geographically and culturally in two. During the first episode, disparities in wealth are shown to be more pronounced than in previous periods in post-war Japan. The main adversary is Genom, a megacorporation with immense power and global influence. Its main product are boomers—artificial cybernetic life forms that are usually in the form of humans, with most of their bodies being machine; also known as "cyberoids". While Boomers are intended to serve mankind, they become deadly instruments in the hands of ruthless individuals. The AD Police (Advanced Police) are tasked to deal with Boomer-related crimes. One of the series' themes is the inability of the department to deal with threats due to political infighting, red tape, and an insufficient budget.

Bildungsroman

A ''Bildungsroman'' is a growing up or "coming of age" of a generally naive person who goes in search of answers to life's questions with the expectation that these will result in gaining experience of the world. The genre evolved from folklore tales of a dunce or youngest child going out in the world to seek his fortune. Usually in the beginning of the story there is an emotional loss which makes the protagonist leave on their journey. In a ''Bildungsroman'', the goal is maturity, and the protagonist achieves it gradually and with difficulty. The genre often features a main conflict between the main character and society. Typically, the values of society are gradually accepted by the protagonist and they are ultimately accepted into society—the protagonist's mistakes and disappointments are over. In some works, the protagonist is able to reach out and help others after having achieved maturity.

Franco Moretti "argues that the main conflict in the ''Bildungsroman'' is the myth of modernity with its overvaluation of youth and progress as it clashes with the static teleological vision of happiness and reconciliation found in the endings of Goethe's ''Wilhelm Meister'' and even Jane Austen's ''Pride and Prejudice''".

There are many variations and subgenres of ''Bildungsroman'' that focus on the growth of an individual. An ''Entwicklungsroman'' ("development novel") is a story of general growth rather than self-cultivation. An ''Erziehungsroman'' ("education novel") focuses on training and formal schooling, while a ''Künstlerroman'' ("artist novel") is about the development of an artist and shows a growth of the self. Furthermore, some memoirs and published journals can be regarded as ''Bildungsroman'' although being predominantly factual (e.g. ''The Dharma Bums'' by Jack Kerouac or'' The Motorcycle Diaries'' by Ernesto "Che" Guevara). The term is also more loosely used to describe coming-of-age films and related works in other genres.

Bride of the Monster

In a stretch of woods, two hunters are caught in a "raging thunderstorm". They decide to seek refuge in Willows House, supposedly abandoned and haunted. When they reach Willows House, they find it occupied, and the current owner repeatedly denies them hospitality. One of the hunters attempts to force his entry into the house, but a giant octopus is released from its tank and sent after the intruders. One of the fleeing hunters is killed by the octopus, while the giant captures the other. The owner is a scientist, Dr. Eric Vornoff, and the giant is his mute assistant, Lobo. Vornoff explains that he will experiment on the unwilling hunter, who dies on the operating table.

In a police station, Officer Tom Robbins sees Lieutenant Dick Craig. There are now 12 missing victims, and the police still do not know what happened to them. The reporter behind the newspaper reports is Janet Lawton, Craig's fiancée. Janet forces her way into the office and argues with Robbins, and vows to go to Lake Marsh to investigate. At the police station, Robbins and Craig have a meeting with an intellectual from Europe, Professor Vladimir Strowski, who agrees to assist the police in investigating the Marsh but not at night. As night falls and another storm begins, Janet drives alone to Lake Marsh, but visibility is poor, and she drives off the road and into a ravine. Lobo rescues her.

Janet awakens to find herself a prisoner of Vornoff, who uses hypnosis to put her back to sleep. The following day, Craig and his partner drive to the area around Lake Marsh, a swamp. The partners also discuss the strange weather and mention that the newspapers could be right about "the atom bomb explosions distorting the atmosphere". The duo eventually discovers Janet's abandoned car and realizes she is the 13th missing victim. They leave the swamp while Strowski drives a rented car to the swamp.

Janet awakens at Willows House. Vornoff assures her that Lobo is harmless, but the giant seems fascinated with the female captive and approaches her with questionable intent. Vornoff explains the giant is human and that Vornoff found him in the "wilderness of Tibet". Vornoff then hypnotically places Janet back to sleep. He orders Lobo to transport the captive to Vornoff's private quarters.

Meanwhile, Strowski silently approaches Willows House and enters through the unlocked front door. While Strowski searches the house, Vornoff arrives to greet him. Their country of origin is interested in Vornoff's groundbreaking experiments with atomic energy and wants to recruit him. Vornoff narrates that two decades prior, Vornoff had suggested using experiments with nuclear power, which could create superhumans of great strength and size. In response, he was branded a madman and exiled by his country. Strowski reveals that he dreams of conquest in their country's name, while Vornoff dreams of his creations conquering in his own name. Craig and his partner return to the swamp by late evening and discover Strowski's abandoned car. The partners split up to search the area, Craig heading towards Willows House. Back in the secret laboratory, Vornoff uses a wave of his hand to summon Janet to his current location. She arrives dressed as a bride, summoned through telepathy. He has decided to use her as the next subject of his experiments. Lobo is reluctant to participate in this experiment, and Vornoff uses a whip to re-assert his control over his slave and assistant. Meanwhile, Craig has entered the house and accidentally discovers the secret passage. He is himself captured by Vornoff and Lobo.

As the experiment is about to begin, Lobo is visibly distressed. Making his decision, Lobo rebels and attacks Vornoff. After a fight, Lobo knocks Vornoff out, releases Janet, and transports the unconscious Vornoff to the operating table. The scientist becomes the subject of his own human experiment. This time the experiment works and Vornoff transforms into an atomic-powered superhuman being. He and Lobo physically struggle, and their fight destroys the laboratory and starts a fire. Vornoff grabs Janet and escapes from the flames. Robbins and other officers arrive to help Craig. The police pursue Vornoff through the woods. There is another thunderstorm, and a lightning strike further destroys Willows House. With his home and equipment destroyed, a distressed Vornoff abandons Janet and merely attempts to escape. Craig rolls a rock at him and lands him in the water with the octopus. They struggle until a nuclear explosion obliterates both combatants. Apparently, the end result of the chain reaction started at the destroyed laboratory. Robbins says of Vornoff "he tampered in God's domain".

Citizen Kane

In a mansion called Xanadu, part of a vast palatial estate in Florida, the elderly Charles Foster Kane is on his deathbed. Holding a snow globe, he utters his last word, "Rosebud", and dies. A newsreel obituary tells the life story of Kane, an enormously wealthy newspaper publisher and industrial magnate. Kane's death becomes sensational news around the world, and the newsreel's producer tasks reporter Jerry Thompson with discovering the meaning of "Rosebud".

Thompson sets out to interview Kane's friends and associates. He tries to approach his second wife, Susan Alexander Kane, now an alcoholic who runs her own nightclub, but she refuses to talk to him. Thompson goes to the private archive of the late banker Walter Parks Thatcher. Through Thatcher's written memoirs, Thompson learns about Kane's rise from a Colorado boarding house and the decline of his personal fortune.

In 1871, gold was discovered through a mining deed belonging to Kane's mother, Mary Kane. She hired Thatcher to establish a trust that would provide for Kane's education and to assume guardianship of him. While the parents and Thatcher discussed arrangements inside the boarding house, the young Kane played happily with a sled in the snow outside. When Kane's parents introduced him to Thatcher, the boy struck Thatcher with his sled and attempted to run away.

By the time Kane gained control of his trust at the age of 25, the mine's productivity and Thatcher's prudent investing had made him one of the richest men in the world. He took control of the ''New York Inquirer'' newspaper and embarked on a career of yellow journalism, publishing scandalous articles that attacked Thatcher's (and his own) business interests. Kane sold his newspaper empire to Thatcher after the 1929 stock market crash left him short of cash.

Thompson interviews Kane's personal business manager, Mr. Bernstein. Bernstein recalls that Kane hired the best journalists available to build the ''Inquirer'' s circulation. Kane rose to power by successfully manipulating public opinion regarding the Spanish–American War and marrying Emily Norton, the niece of the President of the United States.

Thompson interviews Kane's estranged best friend, Jedediah Leland, in a retirement home. Leland says that Kane's marriage to Emily disintegrated over the years, and he began an affair with amateur singer Susan Alexander while running for Governor of New York. Both his wife and his political opponent discovered the affair and the public scandal ended his political career. Kane married Susan and forced her into a humiliating operatic career for which she had neither the talent nor the ambition, even building a large opera house for her. After Leland began to write a negative review of Susan's disastrous opera debut, Kane fired him but finished the negative review and printed it. Afterwards Susan tells him she never wanted the opera career anyway, but Kane forces her to continue the season.

Susan consents to an interview with Thompson and describes the aftermath of her opera career. Kane finally allowed her to abandon singing after she attempted suicide. After years spent dominated by Kane and living in isolation at Xanadu, she left him. Kane's butler Raymond recounts that, after Susan left him, he began violently destroying the contents of her bedroom. When he happened upon a snow globe, he grew calm and said "Rosebud". Thompson concludes that he is unable to solve the mystery and that the meaning of Kane's last word will forever remain a mystery.

Back at Xanadu, Kane's belongings are cataloged or discarded by the staff. They find the sled on which the eight-year-old Kane was playing on the day that he was taken from his home in Colorado and throw it into a furnace with other items. Behind their backs, the sled slowly burns and its trade name becomes visible through the flames: "Rosebud".

Chariots of Fire

In 1919, the Jewish Harold Abrahams enters the University of Cambridge, where he experiences antisemitism from the staff but enjoys participating in the Gilbert and Sullivan club. He becomes the first person ever to complete the Trinity Great Court Run, running around the college courtyard in the time it takes for the clock to strike 12, and achieves an undefeated string of victories in various national running competitions. Although focused on his running, he falls in love with Sybil Gordon, a leading Gilbert and Sullivan soprano.

Eric Liddell, born in China to Scottish missionary parents, is in Scotland. His devout sister Jennie disapproves of Liddell's plans to pursue competitive running. Still, Liddell sees running as a way of glorifying God before returning to China to work as a missionary. When they first race against each other, Liddell beats Abrahams. Abrahams takes it poorly, but Sam Mussabini, a professional trainer whom he had approached earlier, offers to take him on to improve his technique. This attracts criticism from the Cambridge college masters, who allege it is not gentlemanly for an amateur to "play the tradesman" by employing a professional coach. Abrahams dismisses this concern, interpreting it as cover for antisemitic and class-based prejudice. When Liddell accidentally misses a church prayer meeting because of his running, Jennie upbraids him and accuses him of no longer caring about God. Eric tells her that though he intends to return eventually to the China mission, he feels divinely inspired when running and that not to run would be to dishonour God.

After years of training and racing, the two athletes are accepted to represent Great Britain in the 1924 Olympics in Paris. Also accepted are Abrahams' Cambridge friends, Andrew Lindsay, Aubrey Montague, and Henry Stallard. While boarding the boat to France for the Olympics, Liddell discovers the heats for his 100-metre race will be on a Sunday. Despite intense pressure from the Prince of Wales and the British Olympic Committee, he refuses to run the race because his Christian convictions prevent him from running on the Lord's Day. A solution is found thanks to Liddell's teammate Lindsay, who, having already won a silver medal in the 400 metres hurdles, offers to give his place in the 400-metre race on the following Thursday to Liddell, who gratefully accepts. Liddell's religious convictions in the face of national athletic pride make headlines around the world; he delivers a sermon at the Paris Church of Scotland that Sunday, and quotes from Isaiah 40.

Abrahams is badly beaten by the heavily favoured United States runners in the 200 metre race. He knows his last chance for a medal will be the 100 metres. He competes in the race and wins. His coach Mussabini, who was barred from the stadium, is overcome that the years of dedication and training have paid off with an Olympic gold medal. Now Abrahams can get on with his life and reunite with his girlfriend Sybil, whom he had neglected for the sake of running. Before Liddell's race, the American coach remarks dismissively to his runners that Liddell has little chance of doing well in his now, far longer, 400 metre race. But one of the American runners, Jackson Scholz, hands Liddell a note of support that quotes 1 Samuel 2:30. Liddell defeats the American favourites and wins the gold medal. The British team returns home triumphant.

A textual epilogue reveals that Abrahams married Sybil and became the elder statesman of British athletics while Liddell went on to do missionary work and was mourned by all of Scotland following his death in Japanese-occupied China.

Castle of the Winds

The player begins in a tiny hamlet, near which he/she used to live. Their farm has been destroyed and godparents killed. After clearing out an abandoned mine, the player finds a scrap of parchment that reveals the death of the player's godparents was ordered by an unknown enemy. The player then returns to the hamlet to find it pillaged, and decides to travel to Bjarnarhaven.

Once in Bjarnarhaven, the player explores the levels beneath a nearby fortress, eventually facing Hrungnir, the Hill Giant Lord, responsible for ordering the player's godparents' death. Hrungnir carries the Enchanted Amulet of Kings. Upon activating the amulet, the player is informed of their past by their dead father, after which the player is transported to the town of Crossroads, and ''Part I'' ends. The game can be imported or started over in ''Part II''.

The town of Crossroads is run by a Jarl who at first does not admit the player, but later (on up to three occasions) provides advice and rewards. The player then enters the nearby ruined titular Castle of the Winds. There the player meets his/her deceased grandfather, who instructs them to venture into the dungeons below, defeat Surtur, and reclaim their birthright. Venturing deeper, the player encounters monsters run rampant, a desecrated crypt, a necromancer, and the installation of various special rooms for elementals. The player eventually meets and defeats the Wolf-Man leader, Bear-Man leader, the four Jotun kings, a Demon Lord, and finally Surtur . Upon defeating Surtur and escaping the dungeons, the player sits upon the throne, completing the game.

Chrono Trigger

In 1000 AD, the kingdom of Guardia is celebrating the new millennium with a Millennial Fair. There, Crono and Marle watch Lucca and her father demonstrate their new teleportation device, the Telepod. When Marle volunteers to be teleported, her pendant interferes with the device, creating a portal that draws her in. Crono and Lucca recreate the portal and find themselves in 600 AD. They find Marle only to watch her vanish before their eyes. Lucca realizes that this time period's kingdom has mistaken Marle (who is actually Princess Nadia of Guardia) for Queen Leene, an ancestor of hers who had been kidnapped, thus putting off the recovery effort for her ancestor and creating a grandfather paradox. Crono and Lucca, with the help of Frog, restore history to normal by rescuing Leene. After Crono, Marle, and Lucca return to the present, Crono is arrested on charges of kidnapping and sentenced to death by Guardia's chancellor. Lucca and Marle help Crono escape prison, using another time portal to evade their pursuers. This portal leads to 2300 AD, where the trio learn that civilization has been wiped out by a giant creature known as Lavos that appeared in 1999 AD. The three vow to find a way to prevent the future destruction of their world. After meeting and repairing Robo and discovering another time Gate, Crono and his friends arrive at the End of Time, where they meet a mysterious old man who helps them acquire magical powers and travel through time by way of several pillars of light.

The party discover that a powerful mage named Magus summoned Lavos into the world in 600 AD. They enlist Frog to help them stop Magus, but Frog requires the legendary sword, Masamune, to defeat him. During the subsequent battle with Magus, it is revealed that Magus did not create Lavos, but only woke him up. His disrupted spell to summon Lavos creates a temporal distortion that throws Crono and his friends to prehistory. The party recruit Ayla and do battle with the Reptites, enemies of prehistoric humans, and witness the true origin of Lavos as the creature arrives from deep space and crashes into the planet before burrowing to its core. Entering a Gate created by Lavos's impact, the party arrive in the ice age of 12,000 BC. There, the floating Kingdom of Zeal seeks to draw upon Lavos's power via a machine housed on the ocean floor. Before they can destroy the machine, the party are discovered by the Queen of Zeal thanks to a tip from a mysterious Prophet, and are banished from the time period via a magical lock on the Gate. Seeking a way to return to Zeal, the party discover a time machine in 2300 AD called the Wings of Time (or ''Epoch''), which can access any time period at will. The party return to 12000 BC, where Zeal awakens Lavos, leading the Prophet to reveal himself as Magus, who tries and fails to kill the creature. Lavos defeats Magus and kills Crono, before the remaining party are transported to the safety of the surface by the Queen's daughter, Schala. Lavos annihilates the Kingdom of Zeal, and the debris of the fallen continent causes devastating floods that submerge most of the world below.

Magus confesses to the party that he used to be Prince Janus of Zeal, and that in the original timeline, he and the Gurus of Zeal were scattered across time by Lavos's awakening in 12000 BC. Stranded as a child in 600 AD, Janus took the title of Magus and gained a cult of followers while plotting to summon and kill Lavos in revenge for the death of his sister, Schala. After the Gate in his castle returned him to Zeal, he disguised himself as a Prophet, and, using his knowledge of the future, bided his time for another chance to kill Lavos. At this point, Magus is either killed in a duel with Frog, or spared and convinced to join the party. Either way, he instructs the party to seek out Gaspar, the Guru of Time, to help them resurrect Crono. As they start to leave 12,000 BC, the ruined Ocean Palace rises into the air as the Black Omen, Queen Zeal's floating fortress. The party returns to the End of Time, where the old man reveals himself as Gaspar and gives them the "Chrono Trigger", an egg-shaped device that allows the group to revisit the moment of Crono's death with a Doppel Doll. The party then gather power by helping people across time with Gaspar's instructions. Their journeys involve defeating the remnants of the Mystics, stopping Robo's maniacal AI creator from snuffing out the last of humanity, giving Frog closure for Cyrus's death, locating and charging up the mythical Sun Stone, retrieving the legendary Rainbow Shell, unmasking Guardia's Chancellor as a monster, restoring a forest destroyed by a desert monster, and preventing an accident that disabled Lucca's mother. The party then enter the Black Omen and defeat Queen Zeal, after which they battle Lavos. They discover that Lavos is self-directing his evolution via absorbing DNA and energy from every living creature before razing the planet's surface in 1999 AD, so that it could spawn a new generation to destroy other worlds and continue the evolutionary cycle. The party slay Lavos, and celebrate at the final night of the Millennial Fair before returning to their own times.

If Magus joined the party, he departs to search for Schala. If Crono was resurrected before defeating Lavos, his sentence for kidnapping Marle is revoked by her father, King Guardia XXXIII, thanks to testimonies from Marle's ancestors and descendants, whom Crono had helped during his journey. Crono's mother accidentally enters the time gate at the Millennial Fair before it closes, prompting Crono, Marle, and Lucca to set out in the Epoch to find her while fireworks light up the night sky. If Crono was not resurrected, Frog, Robo, and Ayla (along with Magus if he was recruited) chase Gaspar to the Millennial Fair and back again, revealing that Gaspar knows how to resurrect Crono; Marle and Lucca then use the Epoch to travel through time to accomplish this. Alternatively, if the party used the Epoch to break Lavos's outer shell, Marle will help her father hang Nadia's bell at the festival and accidentally get carried away by several balloons. If resurrected, Crono jumps on to help her, but cannot bring them down to earth. Hanging on in each other's arms, the pair travel through the cloudy, moonlit sky.

''Chrono Trigger DS'' added two new scenarios to the game. In the first, Crono and his friends can help a "lost sanctum" of Reptites, who reward powerful items and armor. The second scenario adds ties to ''Trigger'''s sequel, ''Chrono Cross''. In a New Game Plus, the group can explore several temporal distortions to combat shadow versions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca, and to fight Dalton, who promises in defeat to raise an army in the town of Porre to destroy the Kingdom of Guardia. The group can then fight the Dream Devourer, a prototypical form of the ''Time Devourer''—a fusion of Schala and Lavos seen in ''Chrono Cross''. A version of Magus pleads with Schala to resist; though she recognizes him as her brother, she refuses to be helped and sends him away. Schala subsequently erases his memories and Magus awakens in a forest, determined to find what he had lost.

Children of Dune

Nine years after Emperor Paul Muad'Dib walked into the desert, blind, the ecological transformation of Dune has reached the point where some Fremen are living without stillsuits in the less arid climate and have started to move out of the sietches and into the villages and cities. As the old ways erode, more and more pilgrims arrive to experience the planet of Muad'Dib. The Imperial high council has lost its political might and is powerless to control the Jihad.

Paul's young twin children, Leto II and Ghanima, have concluded that their guardian Alia has succumbed to Abomination—possession by her grandfather Baron Vladimir Harkonnen—and fear that a similar fate awaits them. They (and Alia) also realize that the terraforming of Dune will kill all the sandworms, thus destroying the source of the spice, but Harkonnen desires this outcome. Leto also fears that, like his father, he will become trapped by his prescience.

Meanwhile, a new religious figure called "The Preacher" has risen in the desert, rallying against the religious government's injustices and the changes among the Fremen. Some Fremen believe he is Paul Atreides. Princess Wensicia of the fallen House Corrino on Salusa Secundus plots to assassinate the twins and regain power for her House.

Lady Jessica returns to Arrakis and recognizes that her daughter is possessed, but finds no signs of Abomination in the twins. Leto arranges for Fremen leader Stilgar to protect his sister if there is an attempt on their lives. The Preacher journeys to Salusa Secundus to meet Wensicia's son Farad'n, and in return pledges the Duncan Idaho ghola as an agent of House Corrino. Alia attempts to assassinate Jessica, who escapes into the desert with Duncan's help, precipitating a rebellion among the Fremen. The twins anticipate and survive the Corrino assassination plot. Leto leaves to seek out the Preacher, while Ghanima, changing her memory with self-hypnosis, reports (and believes) that her brother has been murdered. Duncan and Jessica flee to Salusa Secundus, where Jessica begins to mentor Farad'n. He seizes power from his regent mother Wensicia and allies with the Bene Gesserit, who promise to marry him to Ghanima and support his bid to become Emperor.

A band of Fremen outlaws capture Leto and force him to undergo the spice trance at the suggestion of Gurney Halleck, who has infiltrated the group on Jessica's orders. Leto's spice-induced visions show him myriad possible futures where humanity becomes extinct and only one where it survives. He names this future "The Golden Path" and resolves to bring it to fruition—something that his father, who had already glimpsed this future, refused to do. He escapes his captors and sacrifices his humanity in pursuit of the Golden Path by physically fusing with a school of sandtrout, gaining superhuman strength and near-invulnerability. He travels across the desert and confronts the Preacher, who is indeed Paul.

Duncan returns to Arrakis and provokes Stilgar into killing him so that Stilgar is forced to take Ghanima and go into hiding. Alia recaptures Ghanima and arranges her marriage to Farad'n, planning to exploit the expected chaos when Ghanima kills him to avenge her brother's murder. The Preacher and Leto return to the capital to confront Alia. Upon arriving, Paul is murdered, to Alia's horror. Leto reveals himself in a display of superhuman strength and triggers the return of Ghanima's genuine memories. He confronts Alia and offers to help her overcome her possession, but Harkonnen resists. Alia manages to take her own life by throwing herself off a high balcony.

Leto declares himself Emperor and asserts control over the Fremen. Farad'n enlists in his service and delivers control of the Corrino armies. Leto marries his sister Ghanima to further his goals, but Farad'n is her true consort so the Atreides line can continue.

Chapterhouse: Dune

The Bene Gesserit find themselves the target of the Honored Matres, whose conquest of the Old Empire is almost complete. The Matres are seeking to assimilate the technology and superhuman skills of the Bene Gesserit, and exterminate the Sisterhood itself. Now in command of the Bene Gesserit, Mother Superior Darwi Odrade continues to develop her drastic, secret plan to overcome the Honored Matres. The Bene Gesserit are also terraforming the planet Chapterhouse to accommodate the all-important sandworms, whose native planet Dune had been destroyed by the Matres.

Sheeana, in charge of the project, expects sandworms to appear soon. The Honored Matres have also destroyed the entire Bene Tleilax civilization, with Tleilaxu Master Scytale the only one of his kind left alive. In Bene Gesserit captivity, Scytale possesses the Tleilaxu secret of ghola production, which he has reluctantly traded for the Sisterhood's protection. The first ghola produced is that of their recently deceased military genius, Miles Teg. The Bene Gesserit have two other prisoners on Chapterhouse: the latest Duncan Idaho ghola, and former Honored Matre Murbella, whom they have accepted as a novice despite their suspicion that she intends to escape back to the Honored Matres.

Lampadas, a center for Bene Gesserit education, has been destroyed by the Honored Matres. The planet's Chancellor, Reverend Mother Lucilla, manages to escape carrying the shared-minds of millions of Reverend Mothers. Lucilla is forced to land on Gammu where she seeks refuge with an underground group of Jews. The Rabbi gives Lucilla sanctuary, but to save his people from the Matres he must deliver her to them. Before doing so, he reveals Rebecca, a "wild" Reverend Mother who has gained her Other Memory without Bene Gesserit training.

Lucilla shares minds with Rebecca, who promises to take the memories of Lampadas safely back to the Sisterhood. Lucilla is then "betrayed", and taken before the Great Honored Matre Dama, who tries to persuade her to join the Honored Matres, preserving her life in exchange for Bene Gesserit secrets. The Honored Matres are particularly interested in learning to voluntarily modify their body chemistry, a skill that atrophied among the Bene Gesserit who went out into the Scattering and evolved into the Honored Matres. From this, Lucilla deduces that the greater enemy that the Matres are fleeing from is making extensive use of biological warfare. Lucilla refuses to share this knowledge with the Matres, and Dama ultimately kills her.

Back on Chapterhouse, Odrade confronts Duncan and forces him to admit that he is a Mentat, proving that he retains the memories of his many ghola lives. Meanwhile, Murbella collapses under the pressure of Bene Gesserit training, and realizes that she wants to be Bene Gesserit. Odrade believes that the Sisterhood made a mistake in fearing emotion, and that in order to evolve, they must learn to accept emotions. Murbella survives the spice agony and becomes a Reverend Mother. Odrade confronts Sheeana, discovering that Duncan and Sheeana have been allies for some time. Sheeana does not reveal that they have been considering the option of reawakening Teg's memory through imprinting, nor does Odrade discover that Sheeana has the keys to Duncan's no-ship prison.

Teg is awakened by Sheeana using imprinting techniques. Odrade appoints him again as Bashar of the military forces of the Sisterhood for the assault on the Honored Matres. Odrade announces to the Bene Gesserit that Teg will lead an attack against the Honored Matres. She also makes clear her intention to share her memories with Murbella and Sheeana, making them candidates to succeed her as Mother Superior if she dies. Odrade meets with the Great Honored Matre while the Bene Gesserit forces under Teg attack Gammu with tremendous force. Teg uses his secret ability to see no-ships to secure control of the system, and victory for the Bene Gesserit seems inevitable. In the midst of this battle, Rebecca and the Jews take refuge with the Bene Gesserit fleet.

Dama's chief advisor Logno assassinates Dama with poison and assumes control of the Honored Matres. Too late, Odrade and Teg realize they have fallen into a trap, and the Honored Matres use a mysterious weapon to turn defeat into victory, and capture Odrade. Murbella saves as much of the Bene Gesserit force as she can and they withdraw to Chapterhouse. Odrade, however, had planned for the possible failure of the Bene Gesserit attack and left Murbella instructions for a last desperate gamble. Murbella pilots a small craft down to the surface, announcing herself as an Honored Matre who, in the confusion, has managed to escape the Bene Gesserit with all their secrets. She arrives on the planet and is taken to the Great Honored Matre. Unable to control her anger, Logno attacks but is killed by Murbella.

Awed by her physical prowess, the remaining Honored Matres are forced to accept her as their new leader. Odrade is also killed in the melee and Murbella shares with Odrade to absorb her newest memories, as they had already shared prior to the battle. Murbella's ascension to leadership is not accepted as victory by all the Bene Gesserit. Some flee Chapterhouse, notably Sheeana, who has a vision of her own, and arranges to have some of the new worms that have emerged in the Chapterhouse desert brought aboard the no-ship. Sheeana is joined by Duncan. The two escape in the giant no-ship, with Scytale, Teg and the Jews. Murbella recognizes their plan at the last minute, but is powerless to stop them.

Carmilla

Le Fanu presents the story as part of the casebook of Dr. Hesselius, whose departures from medical orthodoxy rank him as the first occult detective in literature.

Laura, the teenaged protagonist, narrates, beginning with her childhood in a "picturesque and solitary" castle amid an extensive forest in Styria, where she lives with her father, a wealthy English widower retired from service to the Austrian Empire. When she was six, Laura had a vision of a very beautiful visitor in her bedchamber. She later claims to have been punctured in her breast, although no wound was found.

Twelve years later, Laura and her father are admiring the sunset in front of the castle when her father tells her of a letter from his friend, General Spielsdorf. The general was supposed to bring his niece, Bertha Rheinfeldt, to visit the two, but the niece suddenly died under mysterious circumstances. The general ambiguously concludes that he will discuss the circumstances in detail when they meet later.

Laura, saddened by the loss of a potential friend, longs for a companion. A carriage accident outside Laura's home unexpectedly brings a girl of Laura's age into the family's care. Her name is Carmilla. Both girls instantly recognise each other from the "dream" they both had when they were young.

Carmilla appears injured after her carriage accident, but her mysterious mother informs Laura's father that her journey is urgent and cannot be delayed. She arranges to leave her daughter with Laura and her father until she can return in three months. Before she leaves, she sternly notes that her daughter will not disclose any information whatsoever about her family, past, or herself, and that Carmilla is of sound mind. Laura comments that this information seems needless to say, and her father laughs it off.

Carmilla and Laura grow to be very close friends, but occasionally Carmilla's mood abruptly changes. She sometimes makes romantic advances towards Laura. Carmilla refuses to tell anything about herself, despite questioning by Laura. Her secrecy is not the only mysterious thing about Carmilla; she never joins the household in its prayers, she sleeps much of the day, and she seems to sleepwalk outside at night.

Meanwhile, young women and girls in the nearby towns have begun dying from an unknown malady. When the funeral procession of one such victim passes by the two girls, Laura joins in the funeral hymn. Carmilla bursts out in rage and scolds Laura, complaining that the hymn hurts her ears.

When a shipment of restored heirloom paintings arrives, Laura finds a portrait of her ancestor, Mircalla, Countess Karnstein, dated 1698. The portrait resembles Carmilla exactly, down to the mole on her neck. Carmilla suggests that she might be descended from the Karnsteins, though the family died out centuries before.

During Carmilla's stay, Laura has nightmares of a large, cat-like beast entering her room. The beast springs onto the bed and Laura feels something like two needles, an inch or two apart, darting deep into her breast. The beast then takes the form of a female figure and disappears through the door without opening it. In another nightmare, Laura hears a voice say, "Your mother warns you to beware of the assassin," and a sudden light reveals Carmilla standing at the foot of her bed, her nightdress drenched in blood. Laura's health declines, and her father has a doctor examine her. He finds a small, blue spot, an inch or two below her collar, where the creature in her dream bit her, and speaks privately with her father, only asking that Laura never be unattended.

Her father then sets out with Laura, in a carriage, for the ruined village of Karnstein, three miles distant. They leave a message behind asking Carmilla and one of the governesses to follow once the perpetually late-sleeping Carmilla awakes. En route to Karnstein, Laura and her father encounter General Spielsdorf. He tells them his own ghastly story:

At a costume ball, Spielsdorf and his niece Bertha had met a very beautiful young woman named Millarca and her enigmatic mother. Bertha was immediately taken with Millarca. The mother convinced the general that she was an old friend of his and asked that Millarca be allowed to stay with them for three weeks while she attended to a secret matter of great importance.

Bertha fell mysteriously ill, suffering the same symptoms as Laura. After consulting with a specially ordered priestly doctor, the general realised that Bertha was being visited by a vampire. He hid with a sword and waited until a large, black creature of undefined shape crawled onto his niece's bed and spread itself onto her throat. He leapt from his hiding place and attacked the creature, which had then taken the form of Millarca. She fled through the locked door, unharmed. Bertha died before the morning dawned.

Upon arriving at Karnstein, the general asks a woodman where he can find the tomb of Mircalla Karnstein. The woodman says the tomb was relocated long ago by the hero, a Moravian nobleman, who vanquished the vampires that haunted the region.

While the general and Laura are alone in the ruined chapel, Carmilla appears. The general and Carmilla both fly into a rage upon seeing each other, and the general attacks her with an axe. Carmilla disarms the general and disappears. The general explains that Carmilla is also Millarca, both anagrams for the original name of the vampire Mircalla, Countess Karnstein.

The party is joined by Baron Vordenburg, the descendant of the hero who rid the area of vampires long ago. Vordenburg, an authority on vampires, has discovered that his ancestor was romantically involved with the Countess Karnstein before she died and became one of the undead. Using his forefather's notes, he locates Mircalla's hidden tomb. An imperial commission exhumes the body of Mircalla/Millarca/Carmilla. Immersed in blood, it seems to be breathing faintly, its heart beating, its eyes open. A stake is driven through its heart, and it gives a corresponding shriek; then, the head is struck off. The body and head are burned to ashes, which are thrown into a river.

Afterwards, Laura's father takes his daughter on a year-long tour through Italy to regain her health and recover from the trauma, which she never fully does.

Cowboy Bebop

In 2071, roughly fifty years after an accident with a hyperspace gateway which made Earth almost uninhabitable, humanity has colonized most of the rocky planets and moons of the Solar System. Amid a rising crime rate, the Inter Solar System Police (ISSP) set up a legalized contract system, in which registered bounty-hunters (also referred to as "Cowboys") chase criminals and bring them in alive in return for a reward. The series' protagonists are bounty-hunters working from the spaceship ''Bebop''. The original crew are Spike Spiegel, an exiled former hitman of the criminal Red Dragon Syndicate, and Jet Black, a former ISSP officer. They are later joined by Faye Valentine, an amnesiac con artist; Edward, an eccentric child skilled in hacking; and Ein, a genetically-engineered Pembroke Welsh Corgi with human-like intelligence. Over the course of the series, the team get involved in disastrous mishaps leaving them without money, while often confronting faces and events from their past: these include Jet's reasons for leaving the ISSP, and Faye's past as a young woman from Earth injured in an accident and cryogenically frozen to save her life.

While much of the show is episodic in nature, the main story arc focuses on Spike and his deadly rivalry with Vicious, an ambitious criminal affiliated with the Red Dragon Syndicate. Spike and Vicious were once partners and friends, but when Spike began an affair with Vicious's girlfriend Julia and resolved to leave the Syndicate with her, Vicious sought to eliminate Spike by blackmailing Julia into killing him. Julia goes into hiding to protect herself and Spike fakes his death to escape the Syndicate. In the present, Julia comes out of hiding and reunites with Spike, intending to complete their plan. Vicious, having staged a ''coup d'état'' and taken over the Syndicate, sends hitmen after the pair. Julia is killed, leaving Spike alone. Spike leaves the ''Bebop'' after saying a final goodbye to Faye and Jet. Upon infiltrating the syndicate, he finds Vicious on the top floor of the building and confronts him after dispatching the remaining Red Dragon members. The final battle ends with Spike killing Vicious, only to be seriously wounded himself in the ensuing confrontation. The series concludes as Spike descends the main staircase of the building into the rising sun before eventually falling to the ground.

Corum Jhaelen Irsei

Corum is a Vadhagh, one of a race of long-lived beings with limited magical abilities dedicated to peaceful pursuits such as art and poetry. A group of "Mabden" (men) led by the savage Earl Glandyth-a-Krae raid the family castle and slaughter everyone with the exception of Corum, who escapes. Arming himself, Corum attacks and kills several of the Mabden before being captured and tortured. After having his left hand cut off and right eye put out, Corum escapes by moving into another plane of existence, becoming invisible to the Mabden. They depart and Corum is found by The Brown Man, a dweller of the forest of Laar able to see Corum while out of phase. The Brown Man takes Corum to a being called Arkyn, who treats his wounds and explains he has a higher purpose.

Travelling to Moidel's Castle (a likely incarnation of Mont-Saint-Michel), Corum encounters his future lover, the Margravine Rhalina, a mabden woman of the civilized land of Lwym an Esh. Having found out Corum's location by torturing and killing the Brown Man of Laar, Glandyth-a-Krae marshalled his allies to Moidel's Castle. Glandyth had kept Corum's former hand and eye as souvenirs, and showed them to Corum to provoke a reaction. Rhalina uses sorcery (a ship summoned from the depths of the ocean and manned by her drowned dead husband and crew) to ward off an attack by Glandyth-a-Krae. Determined to restore himself, Corum and Rhalina travel to the island of Shool, a near immortal and mad sorcerer. During the journey Corum observes a mysterious giant who trawls the ocean with a net. On arrival at the island Shool takes Rhalina hostage, and then provides Corum with two artifacts to replace his lost hand and eye: the Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhynn. The Eye of Rhynn allows Corum to see into an undead netherworld where the last beings killed by Corum exist until summoned by the Hand of Kwll.

Shool then explains that Corum's ill fortune has been caused by the Chaos God Arioch, the Knight of the Swords. When Arioch and his fellow Chaos Lords conquered the Fifteen Planes, the balance between the forces of Law and Chaos tipped in favor of Chaos, and their minions - such as Glandyth-a-Krae - embarked on a bloody rampage. Shool sends Corum to Arioch's fortress to steal the Heart of Arioch, which the sorcerer intends to use to attain greater power. Corum confronts Arioch, and learns Shool is nothing more than a pawn of the Chaos God. Arioch then ignores Corum, who discovers the location of the Heart. Corum is then attacked by Arioch, but the Hand of Kwll crushes the Heart and banishes the Chaos God forever. Before fading from existence, Arioch warns Corum that he has now earned the enmity of the Sword Rulers. Corum returns to the island to rescue Rhalina, and observes Shool has become a powerless moron, and is devoured by his own creations soon afterwards. Corum learns Arkyn is in fact a Lord of Law, and that this is the first step towards Law regaining control of the Fifteen Planes.

On another five planes, the forces of Chaos - led by Xiombarg, Queen of the Swords - reign supreme and are on the verge on eradicating the last resistance from the forces of Law. The avatars of the Bear and Dog gods plot with Earl Glandyth-a-Krae to murder Corum and return Arioch to the Fifteen Planes. Guided by Arkyn, Corum, Rhalina and companion Jhary-a-Conel cross the planes and encounter the King Without A Country, the last of his people who in turn is seeking the City in the Pyramid. The group locate the City, which is in fact a floating arsenal powered by advanced technology and inhabited by a people originally from Corum's world and his distant kin.

Besieged by the forces of Chaos, the City requires certain rare minerals to continue to power their weapons. Corum and Jhary attempt to locate the minerals and also encounter Xiombarg, who learns of Corum's identity. Corum slows Xiombarg's forces by defeating their leader, Prince Gaynor the Damned. Xiombarg is goaded into attacking the City directly in revenge for Arioch's banishment. Arkyn provides the minerals and confronts Xiombarg, who has manifested in a vulnerable state. As Arkyn banishes Xiombarg, Corum and his allies devastate the forces of Chaos. Glandyth-a-Krae, however, escapes and seeks revenge.

A spell - determined to have been cast by the forces of Chaos - forces the inhabitants of Corum's plane to war with each other (including the City in the Pyramid). Desperate to stop the slaughter, Corum, Rhalina and Jhary-a-Conel travel to the last five planes, ruled by Mabelode, the King of the Swords. Rhalina is taken hostage by the forces of Chaos and Corum has several encounters with the forces of Chaos, including Earl Glandyth-a-Krae.

Corum also meets two other aspects of the Eternal Champion: Elric and Erekosë, with all three seeking the mystical city of Tanelorn for their own purposes. After a brief adventure in the "Vanishing Tower", the other heroes depart and Corum and Jhary arrive at their version of Tanelorn. Corum discovers one of the "Lost Gods", the being Kwll, who is imprisoned and cannot be freed until whole. Corum offers Kwll his hand, on the condition that he aid them against Mabelode. Kwll accepts the terms, but reneges on the bargain until persuaded to assist. Corum is also stripped of his artificial eye, which belongs to Rhynn - actually the mysterious giant Corum had previously encountered. Kwll transports Corum and Jhary to the court of Mabelode, with the pair fleeing with Rhalina when Kwll directly challenges the Chaos God.

In a final battle Corum avenged his family by killing Glandyth-a-Krae and decimating the last of Chaos' mortal forces. Kwll later located Corum and revealed that all the gods - of both Chaos and Law - have been slain in order to free humanity and allow it to shape its own destiny.

Corum Jhaelen Irsei

Set eighty years after the defeat of the Sword Rulers, Corum has become despondent and alone since the death of his Mabden bride Rhalina. Plagued by voices at night, Corum believes he has gone insane until old friend Jhary-a-Conel advises Corum it is in fact a summons from another world. Listening to the voices allows Corum to pass to the other world, which is in fact the distant future. The descendants of Rhalina's folk, the Tuha-na-Cremm Croich (see: Crom Cruach), who call Corum "Corum Llew Ereint" (see: Lludd Llaw Eraint), face extinction by the Fhoi Myore (Fomorians). The Fhoi Myore, seven powerful but diseased and barely sentient giants, with the aid of their allies have conquered the land and plunged it into eternal winter. Allying himself with King Mannach, ruler of the Tuha-na-Cremm Croich, Corum falls in love with his daughter Medhbh (see: Medb).

Corum also hears the prophecy of a seeress, who claims Corum should fear a brother (who will apparently slay him), a harp and above all, beauty. Corum seeks the lost artifacts of the Tuha-na-Cremm Croich - a sacred Bull, a spear, an oak, a ram, a sword and a stallion - which will restore the land. Corum gains new allies, Goffanon (a blacksmith and diminutive giant, a member of the Sidhe race) and Goffanon's cousin and true giant Illbrec. They battle the Fhoi Myore, who themselves have allies: a returned Prince Gaynor, the wizard Calatin and his clone of Corum, the Brothers of the Pine, the undead Ghoolegh and a host of giant demonic dogs. After being instrumental in the death of two of the Fhoi Myore and restoring to his senses the encircled Amergin, the High King and Chief Druid of the Tuha-na-Cremm Croich, Corum and his allies fight a final battle in which all their foes are destroyed.

Corum decides not to return his own world, and is attacked by his clone, whom he defeats with the aid of a spell placed on his silver hand by Medhbh. Medhbh, however, attacks and wounds Corum, having been told by the being the Dagdah that their world must be free of all gods and demi-gods if they are to flourish as a people. Corum is then killed with his own sword by his animated silver hand, thereby fulfilling the prophecy.

The Cider House Rules

Homer Wells grows up in an orphanage where he spends his childhood trying to be "of use" as a medical assistant to the director, Dr. Wilbur Larch, whose history is told in flashbacks: After a traumatic misadventure with a prostitute as a young man, Wilbur turns his back on sex and love, choosing instead to help women with unwanted pregnancies give birth and then keeping the babies in an orphanage. He makes a point of maintaining an emotional distance from the orphans, so that they can more easily make the transition into an adoptive family, but when it becomes clear that Homer is going to spend his entire childhood at the orphanage, Wilbur trains the orphan as an obstetrician and then comes to love him like a son.

Wilbur's and Homer's lives are complicated by Wilbur also secretly being an abortion provider. Wilbur came to this work reluctantly, but he is driven by having seen the horrors of back-alley operations. Homer, upon learning Wilbur's secret, considers it morally wrong.

As a young man, Homer befriends a young couple, Candy Kendall and Wally Worthington, who come to St. Cloud's for an abortion. Homer leaves the orphanage, and returns with them to Ocean View Orchards (Wally's family's orchard) in Heart's Rock, near the Maine coast. Wally and Homer become best friends and Homer develops a secret love for Candy. Wally goes off to serve in the Second World War and his plane is shot down over Burma. He is presumed missing by the military, but Homer and Candy both believe he is dead and move on with their lives, which includes beginning a romantic relationship. When Candy becomes pregnant, they go back to St. Cloud's Orphanage, where their son is born and named Angel.

Subsequently, Wally is found in Burma and returns home, paralyzed from the waist down. He is still able to have sexual intercourse but is sterile due to an infection caught in Burma. They lie to the family about Angel's parentage, claiming that Homer decided to adopt him. Wally and Candy marry shortly afterward, but Candy and Homer maintain a secret affair that lasts some 15 years.

Many years later, teenaged Angel falls in love with Rose, the daughter of the head migrant worker at the apple orchard. Rose becomes pregnant by her father, and Homer performs an abortion on her. Homer decides to return to the orphanage after the death of Wilbur, to work as the new director. Though he maintains his distaste for abortions, he continues Dr. Larch's legacy of honoring the choice of his patients, and he dreams of the day when abortions are free, legal, and safe, so he'll no longer feel obliged to offer them.

The name "The Cider House Rules" refers to the list of rules that the migrant workers are supposed to follow at the Ocean View Orchards. However, none of them can read, and they are completely unaware of the rules – which have been posted for years.

A subplot follows the character Melony, who grew up alongside Homer in the orphanage. She was Homer's first girlfriend in a relationship of circumstances. After Homer leaves the orphanage, so does she in an effort to find him. She eventually becomes an electrician and takes a female lover, Lorna. Melony is an extremely stoic woman, who refuses to press charges against a man who brutally broke her nose and arm so that she can later take revenge herself. She is the catalyst that transforms Homer from his comfortable but not entirely admirable position at the apple orchard to becoming Dr. Larch's replacement at the orphanage.

Chrono Cross

### Characters

''Chrono Cross'' features a diverse cast of 45 party members. Each character is outfitted with an innate Element affinity and three unique special abilities that are learned over time. If taken to the world opposite their own, characters react to their counterparts (if available). Many characters tie in to crucial plot events. Since it is impossible to obtain all 45 characters in one playthrough, players must replay the game to witness everything. Through use of the New Game+ feature, players can ultimately obtain all characters on one save file.

Serge, the game's protagonist, is a 17-year-old boy with blue hair who lives in the fishing village of Arni. One day, he slips into an alternate world in which he drowned ten years before. Determined to find the truth behind the incident, he follows a predestined course that leads him to save the world. He is assisted by Kid, a feisty, skilled thief who seeks the mythical Frozen Flame. Portrayed as willful and tomboyish due to her rough, thieving past, she helps Serge sneak into Viper Manor in order to obtain the Frozen Flame. Kid vows to find and defeat Lynx, an anthropomorphic panther who burned down her adopted mother's orphanage.

Lynx, a cruel agent of the supercomputer FATE, is bent on finding Serge and using his body as part of a greater plan involving the Frozen Flame. Lynx travels with Harle, a mysterious, playful girl dressed like a harlequin. Harle was sent by the Dragon God to shadow Lynx and one day steal the Frozen Flame from Chronopolis, a task she painfully fulfills despite being smitten with Serge.

To accomplish this goal, Harle helps Lynx manipulate the Acacia Dragoons, the powerful militia governing the islands of El Nido. As the Dragoons maintain order, they contend with Fargo, a former Dragoon turned pirate captain who holds a grudge against their leader, General Viper. Though tussling with Serge initially, the Acacia Dragoons—whose ranks include the fierce warriors Karsh, Zoah, Marcy, and Glenn—later assist him when the militaristic nation of Porre invades the archipelago. The invasion brings Norris and Grobyc to the islands, a heartful commander of an elite force and a prototype cyborg soldier, respectively, as they too seek the Frozen Flame.

### Story

The game begins with Serge located in El Nido, a tropical archipelago inhabited by ancient natives, mainland colonists, and beings called Demi-humans. Serge slips into an alternate dimension in which he drowned on the beach ten years prior, and meets the thief, "Kid". As his adventure proceeds from here, Serge is able to recruit a multitude of allies to his cause. While assisting Kid in a heist at Viper Manor to steal the Frozen Flame, he learns that ten years before the present, the universe split into two dimensions—one in which Serge lived, and one in which he perished. Through Kid's Astral Amulet charm, Serge travels between the dimensions. At Fort Dragonia, with the use of a Dragonian artifact called the Dragon Tear, Lynx switches bodies with Serge. Unaware of the switch, Kid confides in Lynx, who stabs her as the real Serge helplessly watches. Lynx boasts of his victory and banishes Serge to a strange realm called the Temporal Vortex. He takes Kid under his wing, brainwashing her to believe the real Serge (in Lynx's body) is her enemy. Serge escapes with help from Harle, although his new body turns him into a stranger in his own world, with all the allies he had gained up to that point abandoning him due to his new appearance. Discovering that his new body prevents him from traveling across the dimensions, he sets out to regain his former body and learn more of the universal split that occurred ten years earlier, gaining a new band of allies along the way. He travels to a forbidden lagoon known as the Dead Sea—a wasteland frozen in time, dotted with futuristic ruins. At the center, he locates a man named Miguel and presumably ''Home'' world's Frozen Flame. Charged with guarding the Dead Sea by an entity named FATE, Miguel and three visions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca from ''Chrono Trigger'' explain that Serge's existence dooms ''Home'' world's future to destruction at the hands of Lavos. To prevent Serge from obtaining the Frozen Flame, FATE destroys the Dead Sea.

Able to return to ''Another'' world, Serge allies with the Acacia Dragoons against Porre and locates that dimension's Dragon Tear, allowing him to return to his human form. He then enters the Sea of Eden, ''Another'' world's physical equivalent of the Dead Sea, finding a temporal research facility from the distant future called Chronopolis. Lynx and Kid are inside; Serge defeats Lynx and the supercomputer FATE, allowing the six Dragons of El Nido to steal the Frozen Flame and retire to Terra Tower, a massive structure raised from the sea floor. Kid falls into a coma, and Harle bids the party goodbye to fly with the Dragons. Serge regroups his party and tends to Kid, who remains comatose. Continuing his adventure, he obtains and cleanses the corrupted Masamune sword from ''Chrono Trigger''. He then uses the Dragon relics and shards of the Dragon Tears to create the mythic Element Chrono Cross. The spiritual power of the Masamune later allows him to lift Kid from her coma. At Terra Tower, the prophet of time, revealed to be Belthasar from ''Chrono Trigger'', visits him with visions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca. Serge learns that the time research facility Chronopolis created El Nido thousands of years ago after a catastrophic experimental failure drew it to the past. The introduction of a temporally foreign object in history caused the planet to pull in a counterbalance from a different dimension. This was Dinopolis, a city of Dragonians—parallel universe descendants of ''Chrono Trigger'''s Reptites. The institutions warred and Chronopolis subjugated the Dragonians. Humans captured their chief creation—the Dragon God, an entity capable of controlling nature.

Chronopolis divided this entity into six pieces and created an Elements system. FATE then terraformed an archipelago, erased the memories of most of Chronopolis's staff, and sent them to inhabit and populate its new paradise. Thousands of years later, a panther demon attacked a three-year-old Serge. His father took him to find assistance at Marbule, but Serge's boat blew off course due to a raging magnetic storm caused by Schala. Schala, the princess of the Kingdom of Zeal, had long ago accidentally fallen to a place known as the Darkness Beyond Time and began merging with Lavos, the chief antagonist of ''Chrono Trigger''. Schala's storm nullified Chronopolis's defenses and allowed Serge to contact the Frozen Flame; approaching it healed Serge but corrupted his father, turning him into Lynx. A circuit in Chronopolis then designated Serge "Arbiter", simultaneously preventing FATE from using the Frozen Flame by extension. The Dragons were aware of this situation, creating a seventh Dragon under the storm's cover named Harle, who manipulated Lynx to steal the Frozen Flame for the Dragons.

After Serge returned home, FATE sent Lynx to kill Serge, hoping that it would release the Arbiter lock. Ten years after Serge drowned, the thief Kid—presumably on Belthasar's orders—went back in time to save Serge and split the dimensions. FATE, locked out of the Frozen Flame again, knew that Serge would one day cross to ''Another'' world and prepared to apprehend him. Lynx switched bodies with Serge to dupe the biological check of Chronopolis on the Frozen Flame. Belthasar then reveals that these events were part of a plan he had orchestrated named Project Kid. Serge continues to the top of Terra Tower and defeats the Dragon God. Continuing to the beach where the split in dimensions had occurred, Serge finds apparitions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca once more. They reveal that Belthasar's plan was to empower Serge to free Schala from melding with Lavos, lest they evolve into the "Time Devourer", a creature capable of destroying spacetime. Lucca explains that Kid is Schala's clone, sent to the modern age to take part in Project Kid. Serge uses a Time Egg—given to him by Belthasar—to enter the Darkness Beyond Time and vanquish the Time Devourer, separating Schala from Lavos and restoring the dimensions to one. Thankful, Schala muses on evolution and the struggle of life and returns Serge to his home, noting that he will forget the entire adventure. She then seemingly records the experience in her diary, noting she will always be searching for Serge in this life and beyond, signing the entry as Schala "Kid" Zeal, implying that she and Kid have merged and became whole again. A wedding photo of Kid and an obscured male sits on the diary's desk. Scenes then depict a real-life Kid searching for someone in a modern city, intending to make players entertain the possibility that their own Kid is searching for them. The ambiguous ending leaves the events of the characters' lives following the game up to interpretation.

### Relation to ''Radical Dreamers''

''Chrono Cross'' employs story arcs, characters, and themes from ''Radical Dreamers'', a Satellaview side story to ''Chrono Trigger'' released in Japan. ''Radical Dreamers'' is an illustrated text adventure which was created to wrap up an unresolved plot line of ''Chrono Trigger''. Though it borrows from ''Radical Dreamers'' in its exposition, ''Chrono Cross'' is not a remake of ''Radical Dreamers'', but a larger effort to fulfill that game's purpose; the plots of the games are irreconcilable. To resolve continuity issues and acknowledge ''Radical Dreamers'', the developers of ''Chrono Cross'' suggested the game happened in a parallel dimension. A notable difference between the two games is that Magus—present in ''Radical Dreamers'' as Gil—is absent from ''Chrono Cross''. Director Masato Kato originally planned for Magus to appear in disguise as Guile, but scrapped the idea due to plot difficulties. Kato specifically felt that the game's large number of characters, as well as the difficult production schedule, did not allow him to develop the relationship between Magus and Kid. [https://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/2015_-_Masato_Kato,_by_Mariela_Gonzalez.html Translation] In the DS version of ''Chrono Trigger'', Kato teases the possibility of an amnesiac Magus.

Vladimir Harkonnen

### ''Dune''

As ''Dune'' begins, a longstanding feud exists between the Harkonnens of Giedi Prime and the Atreides of Caladan. The Baron's intent to exterminate the Atreides line seems close to fruition as Duke Leto Atreides is lured to the desert planet Arrakis on the pretense of taking over the valuable melange operation there. The Baron has an agent in the Atreides household: Leto's own physician, the trusted Suk doctor Wellington Yueh. Though Suk Imperial Conditioning supposedly makes the subject incapable of inflicting harm, the Baron's twisted Mentat Piter De Vries notes:

It's assumed that ultimate conditioning cannot be removed without killing the subject. However, as someone once observed, given the right lever, you can move a planet. We found the lever that moved the doctor.

The Baron has taken Yueh's wife Wanna prisoner, threatening her with interminable torture unless Yueh complies with his demands. Harkonnen also distracts Leto's Mentat Thufir Hawat from discovering Yueh by guiding Hawat toward another suspect: Leto's Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica, of whom Hawat is already distrustful. The Atreides are soon attacked by Harkonnen forces (secretly supplemented by the seemingly unstoppable Imperial Sardaukar) as Yueh disables the protective shields around the Atreides palace on Arrakis. As instructed, Yueh takes Leto prisoner; however, desiring to slay the Baron, Yueh provides the captive Leto with a fake tooth filled with poisonous gas as a means of simultaneous assassination and suicide. De Vries kills Yueh but he also dies with Leto in the assassination attempt; however Harkonnen survives. The Baron then manipulates Hawat into his service, by convincing Hawat that Lady Jessica was the traitor and using Hawat's desire for revenge on Lady Jessica and the Emperor as motivation to assist House Harkonnen.

Jessica flees into the desert with her and Leto's son Paul Atreides, and both are presumed dead. Paul's prescience helps him determine the identity of Jessica's father, the "maternal grandfather who cannot be named" — the Baron himself. Over the next two years, Harkonnen learns that his nephews Glossu Rabban and Feyd-Rautha are conspiring against him to usurp his throne; he lets them continue to do so, reasoning that they have to somehow learn to organize a conspiracy. As punishment for a failed assassination attempt against him, Harkonnen forces Feyd to single-handedly slaughter all the female slaves who serve as Feyd's lovers. He explains that Feyd has to learn the price of failure.

The Baron's plan to assure Feyd's power is to install him as ruler of Arrakis after a period of tyrannical misrule by Rabban, making Feyd appear to be the savior of the people. However, a crisis on Arrakis begins when the mysterious Muad'Dib emerges as a leader of the native Fremen tribes, uniting them against the rule of the Harkonnens. Eventually, a series of Fremen victories against Beast Rabban threaten to disrupt the trade of the spice, inciting the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV to intervene personally, leading several legions of Sardaukar. After the emperor's arrival on Arrakis, both Corrino and Harkonnen are shocked to learn that rather than a native Fremen warlord, their opponent Muad'Dib is the still-living Paul Atreides, and the Emperor's intervention was part of his plan. The Imperial forces fall prey to a surprise attack by the Fremen, who let a sandstorm short out the force field shields of the transport ships, disable them with projectile weapons, and then mount a mass assault using sandworms as siege-breakers. Their enemies are left trapped on the planet, outnumbered by the many tribes and outgunned by the sandworms. The Harkonnen's past ruthlessness further causes the enraged Fremen to give them little to no quarter; over the course of the battle their entire army is exterminated.

The Harkonnen leadership are also all killed in the course of this battle. Rabban dies first, in the early stages of the battle. Baron Harkonnen himself is poisoned with a gom jabbar by Paul's sister Alia Atreides, still a toddler physically but an adult Reverend Mother mentally, who reveals that she is his granddaughter to him just before his death. His remaining heir Feyd-Rautha is killed in ritual combat by Paul Atreides. House Harkonnen as a political entity is left virtually defunct, permanently excluded from galactic power, though Harkonnen ''blood'' is technically ascendant, as Imperial House Atreides is composed entirely of Vladimir Harkonnen's descendants.

### ''Children of Dune''

Alia had been born with her ancestral memories in the womb, a circumstance the Bene Gesserit refer to as Abomination, because in their experience it is inevitable that the individual will become possessed by the personality of one of their ancestors. In ''Children of Dune'', Alia falls victim to this prediction when she shares control of her body with the ego-memory of the Baron Harkonnen, and eventually falls under his power. Alia eventually commits suicide, realizing that Harkonnen's consciousness has surpassed her abilities to contain him.

### ''Prelude to Dune''

In the ''Prelude to Dune'' prequel series by Brian Herbert and Anderson, it is established that Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is the son and heir of Dmitri Harkonnen and his wife Victoria. Harkonnen's father had been the head of House Harkonnen and ruled the planet Giedi Prime. Trained since youth as a possible successor, Vladimir had been eventually chosen over his half-brother Abulurd (namesake of the original). Unhappy with his brother's doings, Abulurd eventually marries Emmi Rabban and renounces the family name and his rights to the title. Under the name Abulurd Rabban, he reigns as governor of the secondary Harkonnen planet Lankiveil. Abulurd and his wife have two sons: Glossu Rabban (later nicknamed "Beast Rabban" after he murders his own father) and Feyd-Rautha; Vladimir later adopts the boys back into House Harkonnen, and Feyd becomes his designated heir. The Baron's most prominent political rival is Duke Leto Atreides; the Harkonnens and the Atreides have been bitter enemies for millennia, since the Battle of Corrin that ended the Butlerian Jihad. When Emperor Shaddam IV orchestrates a plot to destroy the "Red Duke" Leto, the Baron eagerly lends his aid.

The young Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is described as an exceedingly handsome man, possessing red hair and a near-perfect physique. The Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam is instructed by the Sisterhood to collect his genetic material (through conception) for their breeding program. As the Baron's homosexuality is something of an open secret, Mohiam blackmails him into having sexual relations with her and conceives his child. When that daughter proves genetically undesirable, Mohiam kills her and returns to Harkonnen for a second try; at this point he drugs and viciously rapes her. She exacts her retribution by infecting him with a rare, incurable disease that later causes his obesity. Mohiam's second child with the Baron is Jessica. In ''Dune: House Harkonnen'', the deteriorating Baron at first walks with the assistance of a cane, then relies on belt-mounted suspensors to retain mobility. He consults numerous doctors in the expanse of time between the ''Dune: House Atreides'' and ''Dune: House Harkonnen'', up to and including his future instrument Dr. Yueh, all of whom are ultimately no help. To conceal this debilitation, he pretends that his obesity is due to intentional overindulgence, lest the Landsraad remove him from power. When he determines that Mohiam inflicted him with the disease, he attempts to coerce her into revealing the cure, but soon discovers that there is none. The Baron, Duke Leto, and Jessica herself are unaware that Jessica is secretly the Baron's daughter or that he has even fathered one. In the year 10,176, the Baron's grandson Paul is born to Leto and Jessica.

### ''Hunters of Dune''

In ''Hunters of Dune'' (2006), the continuation of the original series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, the Baron is resurrected as a ghola (5,029 years after the death of Alia) by the Lost Tleilaxu Uxtal, acting on orders from the Face Dancer Khrone. Khrone intends to use the Baron ghola to manipulate a ghola of Paul Atreides, named Paolo. Khrone tries various torture techniques for three years to awaken the 12-year-old Baron's genetic memories; these methods fail due to the Baron's sadomasochistic nature. Khrone is successful when he imprisons the Baron in a sensory deprivation tank for a prolonged period; the Baron's memories of his former life return. The reincarnated Baron is soon haunted by the voice of Alia in his mind; the source of this inner Alia is never explained.

Destry Rides Again

Saloon owner Kent, the unscrupulous boss of the fictional Western town of Bottleneck, has the town's sheriff, Mr. Keogh, killed when Keogh asks one too many questions about a rigged poker game. Kent and Frenchy, a cheap saloon tramp who is his girlfriend, now have a stranglehold over the local cattle ranchers. The town's crooked mayor, Hiram J. Slade, who is in collusion with Kent, appoints the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale, as the new sheriff, assuming that he will be easy to control and manipulate. However, Dimsdale, a deputy under the famous lawman Tom Destry, promptly swears off drinking, and is able to call upon the latter's equally formidable son, Tom Destry Jr., to help him make Bottleneck a lawful, respectable town.

Destry arrives in Bottleneck with Jack Tyndall, a cattleman, and his sister, Janice. Destry initially confounds the townsfolk by refusing to strap on a gun and maintaining civility in dealing with everyone, including Kent and Frenchy. This quickly makes him a disappointment to Dimsdale and a laughingstock to the townspeople; he is mockingly asked to "clean up" Bottleneck by being given a mop and bucket. However, after a number of rowdy horsemen ride into town shooting their pistols in the air, he demonstrates uncanny expertise in marksmanship and threatens to jail them if they do it again, earning the respect of Bottleneck's citizens.

Through the townsmen's evasive answers regarding the whereabouts of Keogh, Destry gradually begins to suspect that Keogh was murdered. He confirms this by provoking Frenchy into admitting it, but without a location for the body, he lacks any proof. Destry therefore deputizes Boris, a Russian immigrant whom Frenchy had earlier humiliated, and implies to Kent that he had found the body outside of town "in remarkably good condition". When Kent sends a member of his gang to check on Keogh's burial site, Boris and Dimsdale follow, capture, and jail him.

Although the gang member is charged with Keogh's murder (in the hope that he would implicate Kent in exchange for clemency), Mayor Slade appoints himself judge of the trial, making an innocent verdict a foregone conclusion. To prevent this, Destry calls in a judge from a larger city in secret, but the plan is ruined after Boris accidentally gives away the other judge's name in the saloon. Kent orders Frenchy to invite the deputy to her house while other gang members storm the sheriff's office and cause a breakout; now in love with Destry, she accepts. When shots are fired, he rushes back, to find the cell empty and Dimsdale mortally wounded. Destry returns to his room and puts on his gun belt, abandoning his previous commitment to nonviolence.

Under Destry's command, the honest townsmen form a posse and prepare to attack the saloon, where Kent's gang is fortified, while Destry enters through the roof and looks for Kent. At Frenchy's urging, the townswomen march in between the groups, preventing further violence, before breaking into the saloon and subduing the gang. Kent narrowly escapes, and attempts to shoot Destry from the second floor; Frenchy takes the bullet for him, killing her, and Destry kills Kent.

Some time later, Destry is shown to be the sheriff of a now lawful Bottleneck, repeating to children the stories that Dimsdale told him of the town's violent history. He jokingly tells a story about marriage to Janice, implying a marriage between them will soon follow.

Dracula

Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, visits Count Dracula at his castle in the Carpathian Mountains to help the Count purchase a house near London. Ignoring the Count's warning, Harker wanders the castle and encounters three vampire women; Dracula rescues Harker, and gives the women a small child bound inside a bag. Harker awakens in bed; soon after, Dracula leaves the castle, abandoning him to the women; Harker escapes with his life and ends up delirious in a Budapest hospital. Dracula takes a ship for England with boxes of earth from his castle. The captain's log narrates the crew's disappearance until he alone remains, bound to the helm to maintain course. An animal resembling a large dog is seen leaping ashore when the ship runs aground at Whitby.

Lucy Westenra's letter to her best friend, Harker's fiancée Mina Murray, describes her marriage proposals from Dr. John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Arthur Holmwood. Lucy accepts Holmwood's, but all remain friends. Mina joins her friend Lucy on holiday in Whitby. Lucy begins sleepwalking. After his ship lands there, Dracula stalks Lucy. Mina receives a letter about her missing fiancé's illness, and goes to Budapest to nurse him. Lucy becomes very ill. Seward's old teacher, Professor Abraham Van Helsing, determines the nature of Lucy's condition, but refuses to disclose it. He diagnoses her with acute blood-loss. Van Helsing places garlic flowers around her room and makes her a necklace of them. Lucy's mother removes the garlic flowers, not knowing they repel vampires. While Seward and Van Helsing are absent, Lucy and her mother are terrified by a wolf and Mrs. Westenra dies of a heart attack; Lucy dies shortly thereafter. After her burial, newspapers report children being stalked in the night by a "bloofer lady" (beautiful lady), and Van Helsing deduces it is Lucy. The four go to her tomb and see that she is a vampire. They stake her heart, behead her, and fill her mouth with garlic. Jonathan Harker and his now-wife Mina have returned, and they join the campaign against Dracula.

Everyone stays at Dr. Seward's asylum as the men begin to hunt Dracula. Van Helsing finally reveals that vampires can only rest on earth from their homeland. Dracula communicates with Seward's patient, Renfield, an insane man who eats vermin to absorb their life force. After Dracula learns of the group's plot against him, he uses Renfield to enter the asylum. He secretly attacks Mina three times, drinking her blood each time and forcing Mina to drink his blood on the final visit. She is cursed to become a vampire after her death unless Dracula is killed. As the men find Dracula's properties, they discover many earth boxes within. The vampire hunters open each of the boxes and seal wafers of sacramental bread inside them, rendering them useless to Dracula. They attempt to trap the Count in his Piccadilly house, but he escapes. They learn that Dracula is fleeing to his castle in Transylvania with his last box. Mina has a faint psychic connection to Dracula, which Van Helsing exploits via hypnosis to track Dracula's movements. Guided by Mina, they pursue him.

In Galatz, Romania, the hunters split up. Van Helsing and Mina go to Dracula's castle, where the professor destroys the vampire women. Jonathan Harker and Arthur Holmwood follow Dracula's boat on the river, while Quincey Morris and John Seward parallel them on land. After Dracula's box is finally loaded onto a wagon by Szgany men, the hunters converge and attack it. After routing the Szgany, Harker slashes Dracula's neck and Quincey stabs him in the heart. Dracula crumbles to dust, freeing Mina from her vampiric curse. Quincey is mortally wounded in the fight against the Szgany. He dies from his wounds, at peace with the knowledge that Mina is saved. A note by Jonathan Harker seven years later states that the Harkers have a son, named Quincey.

Day of the Tentacle

Five years after the events of ''Maniac Mansion'', Purple Tentacle—a mutant monster and lab assistant created by mad scientist Dr. Fred Edison—drinks toxic sludge from a river behind Dr. Fred's laboratory. The sludge causes him to grow a pair of flipper-like arms, develop vastly increased intelligence, and have a thirst for global domination. Dr. Fred plans to resolve the issue by killing Purple Tentacle and his harmless, friendly brother Green Tentacle, but Green Tentacle sends a plea of help to his old friend, the nerd Bernard Bernoulli. Bernard travels to the Edison family motel with his two housemates, deranged medical student Laverne and roadie Hoagie, and frees the tentacles. Purple Tentacle escapes to resume his quest to take over the world.

Since Purple Tentacle's plans are flawless and unstoppable, Dr. Fred decides to use his Chron-o-John time machines to send Bernard, Laverne, and Hoagie to the day before to turn off his Sludge-o-Matic machine, thereby preventing Purple Tentacle's exposure to the sludge. However, because Dr. Fred used an imitation diamond rather than a real diamond as a power source for the time machine, the Chron-o-Johns break down in operation. Laverne is sent 200 years in the future, where humanity has been enslaved and Purple Tentacle rules the world from the Edison mansion, while Hoagie is dropped 200 years in the past, where the motel is being used by the Founding Fathers as a retreat to write the United States Constitution. Bernard is returned to the present. To salvage Dr. Fred's plan, Bernard must acquire a replacement diamond for the time machine, while both Hoagie and Laverne must restore power to their respective Chron-o-John pods by plugging them in. To overcome the lack of electricity in the past, Hoagie recruits the help of Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Fred's ancestor, Red Edison, to build a superbattery to power his pod, while Laverne evades capture by the tentacles long enough to run an extension cord to her unit. The three send small objects back and forth in time through the Chron-o-Johns and make changes to history to help the others complete their tasks.

Eventually, Bernard uses Dr. Fred's family fortune of royalties from the ''Maniac Mansion'' TV series to purchase a real diamond, while his friends manage to power their Chron-o-Johns. Soon, the three are reunited in the present. Purple Tentacle arrives, hijacks a Chron-o-John, and takes it to the previous day to prevent them from turning off the sludge machine; he is pursued by Green Tentacle in another pod. With only one Chron-o-John pod left, Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne use it to pursue the tentacles to the previous day, while Dr. Fred uselessly tries to warn them of using the pod together, referencing the film ''The Fly''. Upon arriving, the trio exit the pod only to discover that they have been turned into a three-headed monster, their bodies merging into one during the transfer. Meanwhile, Purple Tentacle has used the time machine to bring countless versions of himself from different moments in time to the same day to prevent the Sludge-o-Matic from being deactivated. Bernard and his friends defeat the Purple Tentacles guarding the Sludge-o-Matic, turn off the machine, and prevent the whole series of events from ever happening. Returning to the present, Dr. Fred discovers that the three have not been turned into a monster at all but have just gotten stuck in the same set of clothes; they are then ordered by Dr. Fred to get out of his house. The game ends with the credits rolling over a tentacle-shaped American flag, one of the more significant results of their tampering in history.

Denis Diderot

The novel began not as a work for literary consumption, but as an elaborate practical joke aimed at luring the Marquis de Croismare, a companion of Diderot's, back to Paris. ''The Nun'' is set in the 18th century, that is, contemporary France. Suzanne Simonin is an intelligent and sensitive sixteen-year-old French girl who is forced against her will into a Catholic convent by her parents. Suzanne's parents initially inform her that she is being sent to the convent for financial reasons. However, while in the convent, she learns that she is actually there because she is an illegitimate child, as her mother committed adultery. By sending Suzanne to the convent, her mother thought she could make amends for her sins by using her daughter as a sacrificial offering.

At the convent, Suzanne suffers humiliation, harassment and violence because she refuses to make the vows of the religious community. She eventually finds companionship with the Mother Superior, Sister de Moni, who pities Suzanne's anguish. After Sister de Moni's death, the new Mother Superior, Sister Sainte-Christine, does not share the same empathy for Suzanne that her predecessor had, blaming Suzanne for the death of Sister de Moni. Suzanne is physically and mentally harassed by Sister Sainte-Christine, almost to the point of death.

Suzanne contacts her lawyer, Monsieur Manouri, who attempts to legally free her from her vows. Manouri manages to have Suzanne transferred to another convent, Sainte-Eutrope. At the new convent, the Mother Superior is revealed to be a lesbian, and she grows affectionate towards Suzanne. The Mother Superior attempts to seduce Suzanne, but her innocence and chastity eventually drives the Mother Superior to insanity, leading to her death.

Suzanne escapes the Sainte-Eutrope convent using the help of a priest. Following her liberation, she lives in fear of being captured and taken back to the convent as she awaits the help from Diderot's friend the Marquis de Croismare.

Dressed to Kill (1980 film)

Sexually frustrated housewife Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) is attending therapy sessions with New York City psychiatrist Dr. Robert Elliott (Michael Caine). During an appointment, Kate attempts to seduce him, but Elliott rejects her advances, stating his unwillingness to jeopardize his happy marriage. Kate has planned to spend the day with her teenaged son Peter (Keith Gordon), an inventor, but he has to cancel as he has reached a critical point in his research, for his entry to the city’s science fair. Thus, Kate goes alone to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she unexpectedly flirts with a mysterious stranger. Kate and the stranger stalk each other through the museum until they finally wind up outside, where Kate joins him in a taxi. They go to his apartment and have sex.

Hours later, Kate awakens and decides to discreetly leave while the man, Warren Lockman, is asleep. Kate sits at his desk to leave him a note and finds a document indicating that Warren has contracted both syphilis and gonorrhea. Shocked, she leaves the apartment, but having hastily forgotten her wedding ring on the nightstand, she returns to retrieve it. The elevator doors open on the figure of a tall, blonde woman in dark sunglasses wielding a straight razor, who violently slashes Kate to death in the elevator. Upon discovering the body, Liz Blake (Nancy Allen), a high-priced call girl, notices the killer in the elevator's convex mirror, and subsequently becomes both the prime suspect and the killer's next target.

Dr. Elliott receives a bizarre message on his answering machine from "Bobbi", a transgender patient. Bobbi taunts the psychiatrist for ending their therapy sessions, apparently because Elliott refuses to sign the necessary papers for Bobbi to get sex reassignment surgery. Elliott tries to convince Dr. Levy, the patient's new doctor, that Bobbi is endangering herself and others.

Police Detective Marino doubts Liz's story, partly because of her profession, so Liz partners with a revenge-minded Peter to find the killer, using a series of his homemade listening devices and time-lapse cameras to track patients leaving Elliott's office. They catch Bobbi on camera, and soon a tall blonde in sunglasses starts stalking Liz, subsequently making several attempts on her life. Peter thwarts one of them in the New York City Subway by spraying Bobbi with homemade Mace.

The pair scheme to learn Bobbi's birth name by infiltrating Dr. Elliott's office. Liz baits the therapist by stripping to lingerie and flirting with him, distracting him long enough to briefly exit and look through his appointment book. Peter is watching through the window when a blonde pulls him away. When Liz returns, a razor-wielding blonde confronts her; the blonde outside shoots and wounds the blonde inside, knocking the wig off and revealing the razor-wielding blonde as Dr. Elliott/Bobbi. The blonde who shot Bobbi is actually a female police officer, revealing herself to be the blonde who has been trailing Liz.

Elliott is arrested and placed in an insane asylum. Dr. Levy explains later to Liz that Elliott wanted to be a woman, but their male side would not allow them to proceed with the operation. Whenever a woman sexually aroused Elliott, Bobbi, representing the unstable, female side of the doctor's personality, became threatened to the point that she finally became murderous. When Dr. Levy realized this through his last conversation with Elliott, he called the police on the spot, who then, with his help, did their duty.

In a final sequence, Elliott escapes from the asylum after strangling a nurse, and slashes Liz's throat in a bloody act of vengeance. She wakes up screaming, with Peter rushing to her side to help her realize that it was just a nightmare.

Deus Ex (video game)

After completing his training, UNATCO agent JC Denton takes several missions given by Director Joseph Manderley to track down members of the National Secessionist Forces (NSF) and their stolen shipments of the Ambrosia vaccine, the treatment for the Gray Death virus. Through these missions, JC is reunited with his brother, Paul, who is also nano-augmented. JC tracks the Ambrosia shipment to a private terminal at LaGuardia Airport. Paul meets JC outside the plane and explains that he has defected from UNATCO and is working with the NSF after learning that the Gray Death is a human-made virus, with UNATCO using its power to make sure only the elite receive the vaccine.'''Paul:''' The Gray Death is a man-made virus. Everyone up to the President is at UNATCO's mercy as long as UNATCO controls the supply of Ambrosia. / '''JC:''' You believe that? / '''Paul:''' We have proof. We need to get the Ambrosia to Hong Kong. Heard of Tracer Tong? He can help us synthesize it ourselves.

JC returns to UNATCO headquarters and is told by Manderley that both he and Paul have been outfitted with a 24-hour kill switch and that Paul's has been activated due to his betrayal. Manderley orders JC to fly to Hong Kong to eliminate Tracer Tong, a hacker whom Paul has contact with, and who can disable the kill switches. Instead, JC returns to Paul's apartment to find Paul hiding inside. Paul further explains his defection and encourages JC to also defect by sending out a distress call to alert the NSF's allies. Upon doing so, JC becomes a wanted man by UNATCO, and his kill switch is activated by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Walton Simons. JC is unable to escape UNATCO forces, and both he and Paul (provided he survived the raid on the apartment) are taken to a secret prison below UNATCO headquarters. An entity named "Daedalus" contacts JC and informs him that the prison is part of Majestic 12, and arranges for him and Paul to escape. The two flee to Hong Kong to meet with Tong, who deactivates their kill switches. Tong requests that JC infiltrate the VersaLife building. Doing so, JC discovers that the corporation is the source for the Gray Death, and he can steal the plans for the virus and destroy the universal constructor (UC) that produces it.'''Daedalus:''' Majestic 12 seeks to use force and intimidation to seize absolute control. Of everything. They will not hesitate to use all means necessary to achieve this goal, and have engineered the disease you refer to as the "Gray Death" in an effort to accomplish this. The Gray Death is a nanotechnologically engineered virus. You must locate the Universal Constructor used to create the Gray Death and destroy it. My information indicates that it is in Hong Kong, housed in a Majestic 12 facility beneath the corporation known as VersaLife.

Analysis of the virus shows that its structure was designed by the Illuminati, prompting Tong to send JC to Paris to obtain their help fighting Majestic 12. JC meets with Illuminati leader Morgan Everett and learns that the technology behind the Gray Death was intended to be used for augmentation, but Majestic 12, led by trillionaire businessman and former Illuminatus Bob Page, stole and repurposed it. Everett recognizes that without VersaLife's UC, Majestic 12 can no longer create the virus, and will likely target Vandenberg Air Force Base, where X-51, a group of former Area 51 scientists, have built another one. After aiding the base personnel in repelling a Majestic 12 attack, JC meets X-51 leader Gary Savage, who reveals that Daedalus is an artificial intelligence (AI) borne out of the ECHELON program.

Everett attempts to gain control over Majestic 12's communications network by releasing Daedalus onto the U.S. military networks, but Page counters by releasing his own AI, Icarus. Icarus merges with Daedalus to form a new AI, Helios, which can control all global communications. Savage enlists JC's help in procuring schematics for reconstructing components for the UC that were damaged during Majestic 12's raid of Vandenberg. JC finds the schematics and transmits them to Savage. Page intercepts the transmission and targets a nuclear missile at Vandenberg to ensure that Area 51, now Majestic 12's headquarters, will be the only location in the world with an operational UC. However, JC can reprogram the missile to strike Area 51.

JC travels to Area 51 to confront Page. Page reveals that he seeks to merge with Helios and gain full control over nanotechnology. JC is contacted by Tong, Everett, and the Helios AI simultaneously. All three factions ask for his help in defeating Page while furthering their own objectives. Tong seeks to plunge the world into a Dark Age by destroying the global communications hub and preventing anyone from taking control of the world.'''JC Denton:''' If we destroy the Aquinas Hub, we'll take down the global network. / '''Tracer Tong:''' Exactly. They dug their own grave, JC. We're going to eliminate global communications altogether. / '''JC:''' I don't know ... sounds like overkill. / '''Tong:''' As long as technology has a global reach, someone will have the world in the palm of his hand. If not Bob Page, then Everett, Dowd ... / '''JC:''' Another Stone Age would hardly be an improvement. / '''Tong:''' Not so drastic. A dark age, an age of city-states, craftsmen, government on a scale comprehensible to its citizens. Everett offers Denton the chance to return the Illuminati to power by killing Page and using the Area 51 technology to rule the world with an invisible hand.'''Everett:''' No, JC. Spare the facility. Spare Helios, the power station. They can be made to serve us. / '''JC:''' Us? / '''Everett:''' You and me, JC. We'll rule the world in secret, with an invisible hand, the way the Illuminati have always ruled. Helios wishes to merge with Denton and rule the world as a benevolent dictator with infinite knowledge and reason.'''Helios:''' You are ready. I do not wish to wait for Bob Page. With human understanding and network access, we can administrate the world, yes, yes. / '''JC:''' Rule the world ...? Why? Who gave you the directive? There must be a human being behind your ambition. / '''Helios:''' I should regulate human affairs precisely because I lack all ambition, whereas human beings are prey to it. Their history is a succession of inane squabbles, each one coming closer to total destruction. The player's decision determines the future and brings the game to a close.

Doom (1993 video game)

''Doom'' is divided into three episodes: "Knee-Deep in the Dead", "The Shores of Hell", and "Inferno". A fourth episode, "Thy Flesh Consumed", was added in an expanded version of the game, ''The Ultimate Doom'', released on April 30, 1995, two years after ''Doom'' and one year after ''Doom II''. The campaign contains very few plot elements, with the minimal story instead given in the instruction manual and in short text segues between episodes.

In the future, an unnamed marine (known as the "Doom marine" or "Doom guy") is posted to a dead-end assignment on Mars after assaulting a superior officer who ordered his unit to fire on civilians. The Union Aerospace Corporation, which operates radioactive waste facilities there, allows the military to conduct secret teleportation experiments that go terribly wrong. A base on Phobos urgently requests military support, while Deimos disappears entirely, and the marine joins a combat force to secure Phobos. He waits at the perimeter as ordered while the entire assault team is wiped out. With no way off the moon, and armed with only a pistol, he enters the base intent on revenge.

In "Knee-Deep in the Dead", the marine fights demons and possessed humans in the military and waste processing facilities on Phobos. The episode ends with the marine defeating two powerful Barons of Hell guarding a teleporter to the Deimos base. Emerging from the teleporter, he is overwhelmed and comes to with only a pistol again. In "The Shores of Hell", he fights on through Deimos research facilities that are corrupted with satanic architecture and kills a gigantic cyberdemon. From an overlook he discovers that the moon is floating above hell and rappels down to the surface. In "Inferno", the marine takes on hell itself and destroys a cybernetic spider-demon that masterminded the invasion of the moons. A portal to Earth opens and he steps through, only to find that Earth has also been invaded. "Thy Flesh Consumed" follows the marine's initial assault on the Earth invasion force, setting the stage for ''Doom II: Hell on Earth''.

Diablo II

''Diablo II'' takes place after the end of the previous game, ''Diablo'', in the world of Sanctuary. In ''Diablo'', an unnamed warrior defeated Diablo and attempted to contain the Lord of Terror's essence within his own body. Since then, the hero has become corrupted by the demon's spirit, causing demons to enter the world around him and wreak havoc.

A band of adventurers who pass through the Rogue Encampment hear these stories of destruction and attempt to find out the cause of the evil, starting with this corrupted "Dark Wanderer." As the story develops, the truth behind this corruption is revealed: the soulstones were originally intended to imprison the Prime Evils after they were banished to the mortal realm by the Lesser Evils. With the corruption of Diablo's soulstone, the demon is able to control the Dark Wanderer and is attempting to free his two brothers, Mephisto and Baal. Baal, united with the mage Tal-Rasha, is imprisoned in a tomb near Lut Gholein. Mephisto is imprisoned in the eastern temple city of Kurast.

As the story progresses, cut scenes show the Dark Wanderer's journey as a drifter named Marius follows him. Marius, now in asylum, narrates the events to a hooded visitor, whom he initially believes to be the Archangel Tyrael. The player realizes that the Dark Wanderer's mission is to reunite with the other prime evils, Baal and Mephisto. The story is divided up into four acts:

:'''Act I''' – The adventurers rescue Deckard Cain, who is imprisoned in Tristram, and then begin following the Dark Wanderer. The Dark Wanderer has one of the lesser evils, Andariel, corrupt the Sisters of the Sightless Eye (Rogues) and take over their Monastery. The adventurers overcome Andariel and then follow the Wanderer east. :'''Act II''' – While the adventurers search the eastern desert for Tal-Rasha's tomb, the Dark Wanderer gets there first. Marius is tricked into removing Baal's soulstone from Tal-Rasha and Tyrael charges Marius with taking the soulstone to Hell to destroy it. :'''Act III''' – The Dark Wanderer and Baal look for Mephisto in the Temple of Kurast. Still imprisoned in the dungeon below the temple, Mephisto was able to corrupt the High Council of Zakarum and take over the region. While the adventurers fight their way to the temple, Mephisto is rejoined by his brothers; the three open a portal to Hell, the Dark Wanderer sheds his human form, becomes the demon Diablo, and goes through the portal. The adventurers arrive later, defeat Mephisto, who was left guarding the entrance, and take his soulstone. :'''Act IV''' – The adventurers slay Diablo in Hell and destroy the soulstones of Mephisto and Diablo on the Hellforge, preventing their return.

In the epilogue, Marius indicates he was too weak to enter Hell, and that he fears the stone's effects on him. He gives the soulstone to his visitor. The visitor reveals himself to actually be Baal, the last surviving Prime Evil now in possession of his own soulstone. He then kills Marius and sets the asylum on fire.

The story continues with Act V, in the expansion ''Diablo II: Lord of Destruction'' where Baal attempts to corrupt the mythical Worldstone on Mount Arreat. Upon returning to the Pandemonium Fortress after defeating Diablo, Tyrael opens a portal to send the adventurers to Arreat.

Dune Messiah

Twelve years after the events described in ''Dune'' (1965), Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides rules as Emperor. By accepting the role of messiah to the Fremen, Paul had unleashed a jihad which conquered most of the known universe. Paul is the most powerful emperor ever known, but is powerless to stop the lethal excesses of the religious juggernaut he has created. Although 61 billion people have perished, Paul's prescient visions indicate that this is far from the worst possible outcome for humanity. Motivated by this knowledge, Paul hopes to set humanity on a course that will not inevitably lead to stagnation and destruction, while at the same time acting as ruler of the empire and focal point of the Fremen religion.

The Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild, and Tleilaxu conspire to dethrone Paul, and the Guild Navigator Edric is able to use his own prescience to shield the plot from Paul's prescient visions. The Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam has enlisted Paul's wife Princess Irulan, daughter of the deposed Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. Paul has refused to father a child with Irulan (or even touch her), but he and his Fremen concubine Chani have also failed to produce an heir, causing tension within his monarchy. Desperate both to secure her place in the Atreides dynasty and to preserve the Atreides bloodline for the Bene Gesserit breeding program, Irulan has secretly been giving contraceptives to Chani. Paul is aware of this fact, but has foreseen that the birth of his heir will bring Chani's death, and does not want to lose her.

Edric gives Paul a gift he cannot resist: a Tleilaxu-grown ghola of the deceased Duncan Idaho, Paul's childhood teacher and friend, now called "Hayt". The conspirators hope the presence of Hayt will undermine Paul's ability to rule by forcing Paul to question himself and the empire he has created. Furthermore, Paul's acceptance of the gift weakens his support among the Fremen, who see the Tleilaxu and their tools as unclean. Chani, taking matters into her own hands, switches to a traditional Fremen fertility diet, preventing Irulan from being able to tamper with her food, and soon becomes pregnant. It becomes clear her fetuses are developing much faster than normal, putting a strain on her body.

Otheym, one of Paul's former Fedaykin death commandos, reveals evidence of a Fremen conspiracy against Paul. Otheym gives Paul his dwarf Tleilaxu servant Bijaz, who, like a recording machine, can remember faces, names, and details. Paul accepts reluctantly, seeing the strands of a Tleilaxu plot. As Paul's soldiers attack the conspirators, others set off an atomic weapon called a stone burner, purchased from the Tleilaxu, that destroys the area and blinds Paul. By tradition, all blind Fremen exile themselves in the desert, but Paul shocks the Fremen and entrenches his godhood by proving he can still see, even without eyes. His oracular powers have become so developed that he can foresee in his mind everything that happens, so by moving through his life in lockstep with his visions, he can see even the slightest details of the world around him.

Bijaz, actually an agent of the Tleilaxu, uses a specific humming intonation to implant a command that will compel Hayt to attempt to kill Paul under certain circumstances. Chani dies in childbirth, and Paul's reaction to her death triggers Hayt, who attempts to kill Paul. Hayt's ghola body reacts against its own programming and Duncan's full consciousness is recovered, simultaneously making him independent of Tleilaxu control.

Paul and Chani's newborn twins come into the world fully conscious with Kwisatz Haderach-like access to ancestral memories. The son is a total surprise for Paul, who had only foreseen the birth of their daughter. Scytale offers to revive Chani as a ghola, but Paul refuses to submit, considering the possibility that the Tleilaxu might program Chani in some diabolical way. The Face Dancer then threatens the infants with a knife to force Paul to accept, and also demands all of his CHOAM holdings in return. By successfully escaping the oracular trap and setting the universe on a new path, Paul has been rendered completely blind, yet he is able to kill Scytale with an accurately aimed dagger due to a psychic vision from his son's perspective. Later that evening Bijaz approaches Paul and repeats Scytale's offer, but is killed by Duncan on Paul's order. Now prophetically and physically blind, Paul chooses to embrace the Fremen tradition of a blind man walking alone into the desert, winning the fealty of the Fremen for his children, who will inherit his empire.

Paul leaves Alia, now romantically involved with Duncan, as regent for the twins, whom he has named Leto and Ghanima. Alia orders the execution of Edric, Mohiam, and others involved in the plot against her brother, going against his wish that none of them should be hurt, but spares Irulan. Duncan notes the irony that Paul and Chani's deaths have enabled them to triumph against their enemies, and that Paul has escaped deification by walking into the desert as a man, while guaranteeing Fremen support for the Atreides line.

Duke Nukem 3D

### Setting

''Duke Nukem 3D'' is set on Earth "sometime in the early 21st century". The levels of ''Duke Nukem 3D'' take players outdoors and indoors through rendered street scenes, military bases, deserts, a flooded city, space stations, Moon bases, and a Japanese restaurant.

The game contains several humorous references to pop culture. Some of Duke's lines are drawn from movies such as ''Aliens'', ''Dirty Harry'', ''Evil Dead II'', ''Full Metal Jacket'', ''Jaws'', ''Pulp Fiction'', and ''They Live''; the captured women saying "Kill me" is a reference to ''Aliens''. Players will encounter corpses of famous characters such as Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, Snake Plissken, the protagonist of ''Doom'', and a smashed T-800. In the first episode, players navigate a tunnel in the wall of a prison cell hidden behind a poster, just like in ''The Shawshank Redemption''. During the second episode, players can see a Monolith (from ''2001: A Space Odyssey'') on the Moon.

### Story

There is little narrative in the game, only a brief text prelude located under "Help" in the Main Menu, and a few cutscenes after the completion of an episode. The game picks up right after the events of ''Duke Nukem II'', with Duke returning to Earth in his space cruiser. As Duke descends on Los Angeles in hopes of taking a vacation, his ship is shot down by unknown hostiles. While sending a distress signal, Duke learns that aliens are attacking Los Angeles and have mutated the LAPD. With his vacation plans now ruined, Duke hits the "eject" button, and vows to do whatever it takes to stop the alien invasion.

In "Episode One: ''L.A. Meltdown''", Duke fights his way through a dystopian Los Angeles. At a strip club, he is captured by pig-cops, but escapes the alien-controlled penitentiary and tracks down the alien cruiser responsible for the invasion in the San Andreas Fault. Duke confronts and kills an Alien Battlelord in the final level. Duke discovers that the aliens were capturing women, and detonates the ship. Levels in this episode include a movie theater, a red-light district, a prison, and a nuclear-waste disposal facility.

In "Episode Two: ''Lunar Apocalypse''", Duke journeys to space, where he finds many of the captured women held in various incubators throughout space stations that had been conquered by the aliens. Duke reaches the alien mother ship on the Moon and kills an alien Overlord. As Duke inspects the ship's computer, it is revealed that the plot to capture women was merely a ruse to distract him. The aliens have already begun their attack on Earth.

In "Episode Three: ''Shrapnel City''", Duke battles the massive alien presence through Los Angeles once again, and kills the leader of the alien menace: the Cycloid Emperor. The game ends as Duke promises that after some "R&R", he will be "...ready for more action!", as an anonymous woman calls him back to bed. Levels in this episode include a sushi bar, a movie set, a subway, and a hotel.

The story continues in the ''Atomic Edition''. In "Episode Four: ''The Birth''", it is revealed that the aliens used a captured woman to give birth to the Alien Queen, a creature which can quickly spawn deadly alien protector drones. Duke is dispatched back to Los Angeles to fight hordes of aliens, including the protector drones. Eventually, Duke finds the lair of the Alien Queen, and kills her, thus thwarting the alien plot. Levels in this episode include a fast-food restaurant ("Duke Burger"), a supermarket, a Disneyland parody called "Babe Land", a police station, the oil tanker ''Exxon Valdez'', and Area 51.

With the release of ''20th Anniversary World Tour'', the story progresses further. In "Episode Five: ''Alien World Order''", Duke finds out that the aliens initiated a world-scale invasion, so he sets out to repel their attack on various countries. Duke proceeds to clear out aliens from Amsterdam, Moscow, London, San Francisco, Paris, the Giza pyramid complex, and Rome, with the final showdown with the returning alien threat taking place in Los Angeles, taking the game full circle. There, he defeats the Cycloid Incinerator, the current alien leader, stopping their threat for good.

Dr. Strangelove

United States Air Force Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper is commander of Burpelson Air Force Base, which houses the 843rd Bomb Wing, flying B-52 bombers armed with hydrogen bombs. The planes are on airborne alert two hours from their targets inside the USSR.

General Ripper orders his executive officer, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (an exchange officer from the Royal Air Force), to put the base on alert, confiscate all privately-owned radios from base personnel and issue "Wing Attack Plan R" to the patrolling bombers. All the aircraft commence attack flights on the USSR and set their radios to allow communications only through their CRM 114 discriminators, which are designed to accept only communications preceded by a secret three-letter code known only to General Ripper. Happening upon a radio that had been missed earlier and hearing normal civilian broadcasting, Mandrake realizes that no attack order has been issued by The Pentagon and tries to stop Ripper, who locks them both in his office. Ripper tells Mandrake that he believes the Soviets have been fluoridating American water supplies to pollute the "precious bodily fluids" of Americans. Mandrake realizes Ripper has become insane.

In the War Room at the Pentagon, General Buck Turgidson briefs President Merkin Muffley and other officers about how "Plan R" enables a senior officer to launch a retaliatory nuclear attack on the Soviets if all superiors have been killed in a first strike on the United States. It would take two days to try every CRM code combination to issue a recall order, so Muffley orders the U.S. Army to storm the base and arrest General Ripper. Turgidson, noting the slim odds of recalling the planes in time, then proposes that Muffley not only let the attack continue but send reinforcements. According to an unofficial study, this would result in "modest and acceptable civilian casualties" from the "badly damaged and uncoordinated" Soviet military that would remain after the initial attack. Muffley refuses this plan and instead brings Soviet ambassador Alexei de Sadeski into the War Room to telephone Soviet Premier Dimitri Kissov on the "hotline." Muffley warns the Premier of the impending attack and offers to reveal the targets, flight plans and defensive systems of the bombers so that the Soviets can protect themselves.

After a heated discussion with the Premier, the ambassador informs President Muffley that the Soviet Union created a doomsday machine as a nuclear deterrent; it consists of many buried bombs jacketed with "cobalt-thorium G", which are set to detonate automatically should any nuclear attack strike the country. The resulting nuclear fallout would then engulf the planet for 93 years, rendering the Earth's surface uninhabitable. The device cannot be deactivated, as it is programmed to explode if any such attempt is made. The President's wheelchair-using scientific advisor, former German Nazi Dr. Strangelove, points out that such a doomsday machine would only be an effective deterrent if everyone knew about it; Alexei replies that the Soviet Premier had planned to reveal its existence to the world the following week at the Party Congress.

U.S. Army troops arrive at Burpelson and battle with the garrison. After General Ripper commits suicide, Mandrake identifies Ripper's CRM code from his desk blotter and relays it to the Pentagon. Using the code, Strategic Air Command successfully recalls all of the bombers except for one, commanded by Major T. J. "King" Kong, due to the radio equipment being damaged in a missile attack. The Soviets attempt to find it, but Kong has the bomber attack a closer target due to dwindling fuel. As the plane approaches the new target, a Soviet ICBM site, the crew is unable to open the damaged bomb bay doors. Kong enters the bay and repairs the electrical wiring while straddling an H-bomb, whereupon the doors open and the bomb is dropped. Kong joyfully hoots as he rides the falling bomb until it detonates over the target.

Back in the War Room, Dr. Strangelove recommends that the President gather several hundred thousand people to live in deep underground mines where the radiation will not penetrate. He suggests a 10:1 female-to-male ratio for a breeding program to repopulate the Earth once the radiation has subsided, a plan which gathers enthusiastic support from the all-male command staff. Worried that the Soviets will do the same, Turgidson warns about a "mineshaft gap" while Alexei secretly photographs the War Room. Dr. Strangelove declares he has a plan, then suddenly rises from his wheelchair and exclaims, "Mein Führer, I can walk!" The film cuts to a montage of nuclear explosions, accompanied by Vera Lynn's rendition of the song "We'll Meet Again."

Das Boot

Lieutenant Werner is a war correspondent on the in October 1941. He is driven by its captain and chief engineer to a raucous French bordello where he meets some of the crew. Thomsen, another captain, gives a crude drunken speech to celebrate his ''Ritterkreuz'' award, in which he mocks Adolf Hitler.

The next morning, ''U-96'' sails out of the harbour of La Rochelle and Werner is given a tour of the boat. As time passes, he observes ideological differences between the new crew members and the hardened veterans, particularly the captain, who is embittered and cynical about the war. The new men, including Werner, are mocked by the rest of the crew, who share a tight bond. One Nazi officer, ''1-WO'' (the 1st [watch] officer), is disliked by the others. After days of boredom, the crew is excited by another U-boat's spotting of an enemy convoy, but they are soon spotted by a British destroyer and bombarded with depth charges. They escape with only light damage.

The next three weeks are spent enduring a relentless North Atlantic gale. Morale drops after a series of misfortunes, but the crew is cheered temporarily by a chance encounter with Thomsen's boat. Shortly after the storm ends, the boat encounters a British convoy and quickly launches three torpedoes, sinking two ships. They are spotted by a destroyer and have to dive below test depth, the submarine's rated limit. During the ensuing depth-charge attack, the chief machinist, Johann, panics and has to be restrained. The boat sustains heavy damage, but is eventually able to safely surface when night falls. A British tanker they torpedoed is still afloat and on fire, so they torpedo it again, only to learn there are still sailors aboard. The crew watch in horror as the sailors leap overboard and swim towards them. Unable to accommodate prisoners, the captain orders the boat away.

The worn-out U-boat crew looks forward to returning home to La Rochelle in time for Christmas, but the ship is ordered to La Spezia, Italy, which means passing through the Strait of Gibraltar—an area heavily defended by the Royal Navy. The U-boat makes a secret night rendezvous at the harbour of Vigo, in neutral although Axis-friendly Spain, with the SS ''Weser'', an interned German merchant ship that clandestinely provides U-boats with fuel, torpedoes, and other supplies. The filthy officers seem out of place at the opulent dinner prepared for them, but are warmly greeted by enthusiastic officers eager to hear their exploits. The captain learns from an envoy of the German consulate that his request for Werner and the Chief Engineer to be sent back to Germany has been denied.

The crew finishes resupplying and departs for Italy. As they carefully approach the Strait of Gibraltar and are just about to dive, they are suddenly attacked and heavily damaged by a British fighter plane, wounding the navigator, Kriechbaum. The captain orders the boat directly south towards the North African coast at full speed, determined to save his crew even if he loses the boat. British warships begin shelling and they are forced to dive. When attempting to level off, the boat does not respond and continues to sink until, just before being crushed by the pressure, it lands on a sea shelf, at the depth of 280 metres. The crew works desperately to make numerous repairs before running out of oxygen. After over 16 hours, they are able to surface by blowing their ballast tanks, and limp back towards La Rochelle under cover of darkness.

The crew is exhausted when they finally reach La Rochelle on Christmas Eve. Shortly after Kriechbaum is taken ashore to a waiting ambulance, Allied planes bomb and strafe the facilities, wounding or killing many of the crew. Ullmann, Johann, the 2nd Watch Officer, and the are killed. Frenssen, Lamprecht, and Hinrich are wounded. After the raid, Werner leaves the U-boat bunker in which he had taken shelter and finds the captain, badly injured by shrapnel, watching his U-boat sink in the dock. Just after the boat disappears under the water, the captain collapses and dies. Werner rushes to his body, and surveys the grim scene with tears in his eyes.

Death of a Hero

''Death of a Hero'' is the story of a young English artist named George Winterbourne who enlists in the army at the beginning of World War I. The book is narrated by an unnamed first-person narrator who claims to have known and served with the main character. It is divided into three parts.

### Book I

The first part details George's family history. His father, a middle-class man from England's countryside, marries a poor woman who falsely believes she is marrying into a monied family. After George's birth, his mother has a series of lovers. The portrait of George's parents is believed to be based on his own parents, whom he disliked. One critic called the characters "parodic monsters".

George is brought up to be a proper and patriotic member of English society. He is encouraged to learn his father's insurance business, but fails to do so. After a disagreement with his parents, he relocates to London to become an artist and live a socialite lifestyle.

### Book II

The second section of the book deals with George's London life. He ingrains himself in socialite society and engages a number of trendy philosophies.

After he and his lover, Elizabeth, have a pregnancy scare, they decide to marry. Although they do not have a child, the marriage endures. They decide to leave their marriage open. George takes Elizabeth's close friend as a lover, however, and their marriage begins to fall apart. Just as the situation is becoming particularly heated, England declares war on Germany. George decides to enlist.

Aldington's portrayal of society contains "clumsily satirical portraits" of T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, both of whom were close personal acquaintances.

### Book III

George trains for the army and is sent to France. (No particular location in France is mentioned. The town behind the front where George spends much of his time is referred to as M—.) He fights on the front for some time. When he returns home, he finds that he has been so affected by the war that he cannot relate to his friends, including his wife and lover.

The casualty rate among officers is particularly high at the front. When a number of officers in George's unit are killed, he is promoted. Upon spending time with the other officers, he finds them to be cynical and utilitarian. He loses faith in the war quickly.

The story ends with George standing up during a machine-gun barrage. He is killed.

At the end of the book there is a poem written from the point of view of a veteran comparing World War I to the Trojan War.

The Evil Dead

Five Michigan State University students – Ash Williams, his girlfriend Linda, his sister Cheryl, their friend Scott and Scott's girlfriend Shelly – vacation at an isolated cabin in rural Tennessee. Approaching the cabin, the group notices the porch swing move on its own but suddenly stop as Scott grabs the doorknob. While Cheryl draws a picture of a clock, the clock stops, and she hears a faint, demonic voice tell her to "join us". Her hand becomes possessed, turns pale and draws a picture of a book with a demonic face on its cover. Although shaken, she does not mention the incident.

When the cellar trapdoor flies open during dinner, Shelly, Linda, and Cheryl remain upstairs as Ash and Scott investigate the cellar. They find the ''Naturom Demonto'', a Sumerian version of the Egyptian ''Book of the Dead'', along with archaeologist Raymond Knowby's tape recorder, and they take the items upstairs. Scott plays a tape of incantations that resurrect a demonic entity. Cheryl yells for Scott to turn off the tape recorder, and a tree branch breaks one of the cabin's windows. Later that evening, an agitated Cheryl goes into the woods to investigate strange noises, where she is attacked and raped by demonically possessed trees. When she escapes and returns to the cabin bruised and anguished, Ash agrees to take her back into town, only to discover that the bridge to the cabin has been destroyed. Cheryl panics as she realizes that they are now trapped and the demonic entity will not let them leave. Back at the cabin, Ash listens to more of the tape, learning that the only way to kill the entity is to dismember a possessed host. As Linda and Shelly play spades, Cheryl correctly calls out the cards, succumbs to the entity, and levitates. In a raspy, demonic voice, she demands to know why they disturbed her sleep and threatens to kill everyone. She stabs Linda in the ankle with a pencil and throws Ash into a shelf. Scott knocks Cheryl into the cellar and locks her inside.

Everyone fights about what to do. Having become paranoid upon seeing Cheryl's demonic transformation, Shelly lies down in her room but is drawn to look out of her window, where a demon crashes through and attacks her, turning her into a Deadite. She attacks Scott before he throws her into the fireplace and then stabs her in the back with a Sumerian dagger, apparently killing her. When she reanimates, Scott dismembers her with an axe and buries the remains. Shaken by the experience, he leaves to find a way back to town. He shortly returns mortally wounded from the possessed trees, and dies while warning Ash that the trees will not let them escape alive. When Ash checks on Linda, he is horrified to find that she has become possessed. She attacks him, but he stabs her with the Sumerian dagger. Unwilling to dismember her, he buries her instead. She revives and attacks him, forcing him to decapitate her with a shovel and retreat to the cabin.

Back inside, Ash discovers that Cheryl has escaped the cellar. Cheryl eludes Ash, and attempts to choke him. Ash escapes her grasp, then shoots Cheryl in the jaw. As Ash is barricading the door, Scott reanimates into a Deadite. Scott attacks Ash, and inadvertently knocks the Naturom Demonto close to the fireplace. Ash gouges Scott's eyes out and pulls a tree branch from Scott's stomach, causing him to bleed out and fall to the ground. Cheryl breaks through the barricade and knocks Ash to the floor. As Scott and Cheryl continue to attack Ash on the ground, Ash grabs the Naturom Demonto and throws it into the fireplace. While the book burns, the Deadites freeze in place, then begin to rapidly decompose. Large appendages burst from both corpses, covering Ash in blood. Dawn breaks, and Ash stumbles outside.

As Ash walks away from the cabin, an unseen demon moves rapidly through the forest, rushes through the cabin, and attacks him from behind.

Young and Innocent

On a stormy night, at a retreat on the English coast, Christine Clay (Pamela Carme), a successful actress, argues passionately with her jealous ex-husband Guy (George Curzon). Not accepting her Reno divorce as valid, he accuses her of having an affair. Finally, she slaps him and he leaves the room. While they had been arguing, his eyes twitched violently; they continue to do so when, once outside, he turns angrily to look at the closed door behind him.

The next morning, Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) happens to be walking along the seaside when Christine's dead body washes ashore. He recognizes her, and runs for help. Two young women arrive just in time to see him racing away from the corpse. The police quickly decide that Tisdall is the only suspect. Christine was strangled with the belt from a raincoat; his raincoat is missing and he says it was recently stolen. He admits knowing the victim for three years since he sold her a story but the authorities assume the two have been having an affair. When they learn that she has left him money in her will (unbeknownst to him), they feel they have hit upon a motive and Tisdall is arrested.

Scotland Yard detectives grill him all night. The next morning, he faints and is revived with the aid of Erica Burgoyne (Nova Pilbeam), daughter of the local police Chief Constable. Tisdall is assigned an incompetent solicitor, and is taken into court for his formal arraignment. Doubting if his innocence will ever be established, he takes advantage of overcrowding in the courthouse to escape, wearing the solicitor's eyeglasses as a disguise. He gets away by riding on the running board of Erica's Morris car, revealing himself to her after the car runs out of petrol.

He helps push the car to a filling station, pays for petrol, and convinces her to give him a ride. Though she is initially fearful and unsure about her passenger, Erica eventually becomes convinced of his innocence and decides to help him in any way that she can. They are eventually spotted together, forcing both to stay on the run from the police. Tisdall tries to prove his innocence by tracking down the stolen coat: if it still has its belt, the one found next to Christine's body must not be his.

The duo succeed in tracing Tisdall's coat to Old Will (Edward Rigby), a homeless, but sociable, china-mender. But Will was not the thief; he was given the coat by a man with "twitchy eyes", and with its belt already missing.

After becoming separated from the others, Erica is taken in by the police. Upon realizing that his daughter has fully allied herself with a murder suspect, her father chooses to resign his position as Chief Constable rather than arrest her for assisting a felon. Though mutually undeclared, by this point she and Tisdall are in love, Tisdall sneaks into their house to see her, intending to surrender and assert he kidnapped her, to save her honour and her father's reputation. But she mentions that the coat had a box of matches from the Grand Hotel in a pocket. As Tisdall has never been there, he surmises perhaps the murderer has a connection to the hotel.

The following evening, Erica and Will go to the hotel together, hoping to find him. In a memorably long, continuous sequence, the camera pans right from their entrance to the hotel and then moves forward from the very back of the hotel ballroom, finally focusing in extreme closeup on the drummer in a dance band performing in blackface. His eyes are twitching. He is Guy, the murderer.

Recognizing Old Will in the audience, and seeing policemen nearby (who have actually followed Will hoping he'll lead them to Tisdall), Guy performs poorly due to fear. He is berated by the conductor and, during a break, takes medicine to try to control the twitching, but it makes him very sleepy. Eventually, in mid-performance, Guy passes out, drawing the attention of Erica and the police. Immediately after being revived and confronted, he confesses his crime and begins laughing hysterically.

Reunited once again with Tisdall, Erica then tells her father that she thinks it is time they invited him to their home for dinner.

The Time in Between

Charles Boatman, an army veteran suddenly disappears and his daughter Ada and her younger brother Jon on finding some clues go looking out for him in Danang, Vietnam. The novel mixes various stories from different timeframes narrating Charles's days in Washington when he was young. He married Sara and had daughter Ada while living in Fraser Valley of British Columbia. He gets posted in the war time era to Vietnam and serves there and upon arrival discovers his wife's infidelity. Sara dies early and by then they also had a son Jon. Charles keeps getting nightmares of his Vietnam days on how he killed an innocent civilian boy in one of the operations and this keeps haunting him. On the other hand, Ada s on her mission to find her father and is helped by a local guy Yen who becomes her guide and guardian in the new country. She engages in a sexual relationship with an older man, Hoang Vu who is an artist by profession. Jon indulges in the nightlife of Vietnam and Ada keeps getting closer to her father as she travels across the country. Charles discovers author Dang Tho's novel chronicling wartime and this helps him find some peace.

Escape from New York

In a dystopian 1988, amidst total war against an alliance of China and the Soviet Union, the United States government has turned Manhattan into a giant maximum-security prison to deal with a 400% increase in crime. A wall surrounds the island, bridges have been mined, rivers are patrolled by helicopters, and all prisoners are sentenced to life terms.

In 1997, while flying President John Harker to a peace summit in Hartford, Air Force One is hijacked by a guerrilla fighter of the "National Liberation Front of America" (named in reference to the Viet Cong) posing as the stewardess. Unable to regain control, Secret Service agents attach a tracking device to the President's arm and handcuff him to a briefcase of sensitive documents before putting him in the plane's escape pod. The aircraft crashes, while the pod is ejected.

Police are dispatched to rescue the President. Romero, the right-hand man of the Duke of New York, a powerful crime boss, shows them a severed finger with the President's signet ring and warns that he will be killed if any further rescue attempts are made. Meanwhile, former Special Forces soldier Snake Plissken is about to be sent into Manhattan after being convicted of robbing the Federal Reserve. Police Commissioner Bob Hauk offers a deal to Snake: if he rescues the President in time for the summit, Hauk will arrange a full presidential pardon. To keep Snake from going rogue, Hauk has him injected with micro-explosives that will sever his carotid arteries in 22 hours. If Snake is successful, Hauk will neutralize the explosives.

Using a stealth glider to land atop the World Trade Center, Snake follows the President's tracker to a vaudeville theater, only to find it on the wrist of a deluded vagrant. Convinced the President is dead, Snake radios Hauk but is told that he will be shot down if he returns without the President. Inspecting the escape pod, Snake is ambushed by dozens of starving "Crazies", and accidentally drops and destroys his radio while trying to flee. He is rescued by "Cabbie", a jovial old man who drives an armored taxi.

Cabbie takes Snake to Harold "Brain" Hellman, an adviser to the Duke and a former associate of Snake's. Brain, a brilliant engineer, has established a small gasoline refinery, fueling the city's remaining cars, and tells Snake that the Duke plans to lead a mass escape across the Queensboro Bridge by using the President as a human shield and following a landmine map that Brain has drawn up. Snake forces Brain and his girlfriend Maggie to lead him to the Duke's hideout at Grand Central Terminal. Snake finds the President, but gets shot in the leg with a crossbow bolt and overpowered by the Duke's men.

While Snake is forced to fight in a deathmatch against Duke's champion Slag, Brain and Maggie kill Romero and flee with the President. Snake kills Slag and finds Brain, Maggie, and the President at the top of the World Trade Center trying to escape in the glider. The inmates drop it off the roof, so the group returns to street level and encounters Cabbie, who offers to take them across the bridge. Cabbie reveals that he bartered with Romero for the contents of the briefcase: a cassette tape which contains information about nuclear fusion, intended to be an international peace offering. The President demands the tape, but Snake claims it.

The Duke pursues them onto the bridge in his customized Cadillac, setting off mines as he tries to catch up. Brain guides Snake, but they hit a mine, and Cabbie is killed. As they continue on foot, Brain accidentally stumbles into another mine. A distraught Maggie sacrifices herself to slow down the Duke. Snake and the President reach the containment wall, and guards hoist the President up. The Duke opens fire with Snake's MAC-10, killing the guards before Snake subdues him; he attempts to shoot Snake as he is being lifted up by the rope, but the President takes up a dead guard's rifle, violently guns down the Duke, and hoists Snake to safety. Hauk's doctor saves Snake's life with just seconds to spare.

As the President prepares for a televised speech to the leaders at the summit meeting, he thanks Snake and tells him that he can have anything he wants. Snake then asks how he feels about the people who died saving his life. The President offers only half-hearted regret and lip service for their sacrifice, and Snake walks away in disgust. An impressed Hauk offers him a job as his deputy, but Snake just keeps walking. The President's live speech commences, and he plays the cassette tape. To his embarrassment, it only plays Cabbie's favorite song, "Bandstand Boogie". As Snake walks away a free man, he tears the magnetic strip out of the real tape.

Eyes Wide Shut

Dr. Bill Harford and his wife, Alice Harford, live in New York City with their daughter Helena. They attend a Christmas party hosted by wealthy patient Victor Ziegler, where Bill is reunited with Nick Nightingale, an old medical school classmate who dropped out and now plays the piano professionally. An older Hungarian guest attempts to seduce Alice, and two young models attempt to seduce Bill. He is interrupted by his host, who had been having sex with Mandy, a young woman who has overdosed on a speedball. Mandy recovers with Bill's aid.

The following evening, while smoking marijuana, Alice and Bill discuss their episodes of unfulfilled temptation. Bill tells Alice he is not jealous of other men's attraction to her because he deems women naturally inclined to fidelity. She then discloses that during their vacation on Cape Cod, she encountered a Naval Officer and fantasized about him enough that she considered leaving Bill and their daughter. Bill is disturbed by Alice's revelation before being called to the house of a patient who has just died. The patient's distraught daughter, Marion, unsuccessfully tries to seduce Bill.

Upon leaving, he engages with a sex-worker named Domino. Alice phones when they start kissing, prompting Bill to have a change of heart. He pays Domino for the sexless encounter and meets Nick at a jazz club. Nick describes an impending engagement where he must play piano blindfolded in events featuring beautiful women. It all takes place in a mysterious mansion in Shoreside Vale, in locality Cedar Grove, outside of New York. Invitees require a costume, a mask and a password. Bill goes to a costume shop and offers the owner, Milich, a generous amount of money to rent a costume. Inside the shop, Milich is outraged when he catches his young daughter with two men.

Bill takes a taxi to the country mansion mentioned by Nick. He gives the password and discovers a sexual ritual is taking place. One of the masked women warns him he is in terrible danger. Bill is ushered to a crowded room and unmasked by the master of ceremonies. The woman who had tried to warn Bill intervenes and insists on redeeming him, at an undisclosed personal cost. Bill is let off with a warning not to tell anyone about what happened.

Bill arrives home guilty and confused. He finds Alice laughing in her sleep and awakens her. She tearfully explains a dream in which she was having sex with the naval officer and many other men, and laughing at the idea of Bill witnessing the scene. The next morning, Bill goes to Nick's hotel. The desk clerk explains that a bruised and frightened Nick checked out hours earlier escorted by two dangerous-looking men. Bill returns the costume but seems to have misplaced the mask, and learns that Milich has sold his teenage daughter into sex slavery.

That afternoon, plagued by thoughts of his wife sleeping with the naval officer, Bill leaves his practice early to return to the site of the orgy. As he stands at the front gate, a man comes down to greet him and hands him an envelope addressed to him by name. Inside is an anonymous letter issuing him a second warning to stay away.

Bill calls Marion, but when her fiancé answers he hangs up. Bill heads to Domino's apartment, apparently having decided to consummate his affair. However, he is greeted by a woman who claims that she is Domino's roommate, Sally. There is obvious sexual tension between Bill and Sally but she then reveals that Domino had received just that morning the results of a test that indicated that she was HIV-positive. Bill leaves.

Having left the apartment, Bill notices he is being followed by a mysterious figure. He sees the news about an ex-beauty queen's death from an overdose, goes to the morgue, and identifies her as Mandy. He is then summoned by Ziegler, who reveals he was a guest in the orgy and identified Bill through his connection with Nick. Ziegler claims the secret society's warnings are only intended to scare Bill from speaking about the orgy. However, he implies that the society is capable of acting on its threats. Bill asks about Nick's disappearance and Mandy's death, correctly identifying her as the masked orgy participant who sacrificed herself for him. Ziegler insists that Nick is safely back home in Seattle, and the punishment was part of the same charade of intimidation and had nothing to do with Mandy's death. He also says that Mandy was an addict who had died from another accidental drug overdose. Bill does not know whether Ziegler is telling the truth about Nick's whereabouts or Mandy's death.

Returning home, Bill finds the rented mask on his pillow next to his sleeping wife. He breaks down in tears and tells Alice the whole truth of the past two days. The next morning, they go Christmas shopping with their daughter. Bill apologizes to Alice, and Alice muses that they should be grateful that their marriage and mutual love survived. She suggests that there is something they need to do "as soon as possible". When Bill asks what, she simply responds, "Fuck."

Enter the Dragon

Lee, a highly proficient martial artist and instructor from Hong Kong, is approached by Braithwaite, a British intelligence agent investigating a suspected crime lord named Han. Lee is persuaded to attend a high-profile martial arts tournament on Han's private island to gather evidence that will prove Han's involvement in drug trafficking and prostitution. Shortly before his departure, Lee also learns that the man responsible for his sister's death, O'Hara, is working as Han's bodyguard on the island.

Also fighting in the competition are Roper, an indebted gambling addict, and fellow Vietnam War veteran Williams. At the end of the first day, Han gives strict orders to the competitors not to leave their rooms. Lee makes contact with covert operative Mei Ling and sneaks into Han's underground compound, looking for evidence. He is discovered by several guards, but manages to escape. The next morning, Han orders his giant enforcer Bolo to kill the guards in public for failing in their duties. After the execution, the competition resumes with Lee facing O'Hara.

Lee beats O'Hara in humiliating fashion, then kills him after he attacks Lee with a pair of broken bottles. Han abruptly ends the day's competition after stating that O'Hara's treachery has disgraced them. Han confronts Williams, who had also left his room the previous night to exercise. Han believes Williams to have knowledge of the intruder and after a destructive brawl, beats Williams to death with his iron prosthetic hand. Han then reveals his drug operation to Roper, hoping that he will join his organisation.

Han also implicitly threatens to imprison Roper, along with all the other martial artists who joined Han's tournaments in the past, if Roper will not join his operation. Despite being initially intrigued, Roper refuses after learning of Williams's fate. Lee sneaks out again that night and manages to send a message to Braithwaite, but he is captured after a prolonged battle with the guards. The next morning, Han arranges for Roper to fight Lee, but Roper refuses. As a punishment, Roper has to fight Bolo instead, whom he manages to overpower and beat after a grueling battle.

Enraged by the unexpected failure, Han commands his remaining men to kill Lee and Roper. Facing insurmountable odds, they are soon aided by the island's prisoners and the other invited martial artists, who had been freed by Mei Ling. Han escapes and is pursued by Lee, who finally corners him in his museum. After a brutal fight, Han runs away into a hidden mirror room. The mirrors initially give Han an advantage, but Lee smashes all the room's mirrors to reveal Han's location and eventually kills him. Lee returns outside to the main battle, which is now over. Bruised and bloodied, Lee and Roper exchange a weary thumbs-up as the military finally arrives to take control of the island.

Evil Dead II

Ash Williams and his girlfriend, Linda, take a romantic vacation to a seemingly abandoned cabin in the woods. While in the cabin, Ash plays a tape of archaeologist Raymond Knowby, the cabin's previous inhabitant, reciting passages from the "Book of the Dead", ''Necronomicon Ex-Mortis'', which he has discovered during an archaeological dig. The recorded incantation unleashes an evil force (also known as the Kandarian Demon) that kills and later possesses Linda, turning her into a "deadite". Ash is then forced to decapitate her with a shovel and bury her in a shallow grave near the cabin. At dawn, the evil force throws Ash through the woods. He briefly becomes possessed by the demon, but when day breaks, he is inexplicably returned to normal.

He attempts to flee the area but finds that the bridge to the cabin has been destroyed. The spirit chases him back to the cabin, where Linda's revived head attacks him and bites his hand. He runs to the shed, where her headless body attacks him with a chainsaw, but he overpowers and slashes the deadite Linda to death. His right hand becomes possessed and tries to kill him, and he severs it with the chainsaw before attempting to shoot it with a shotgun, but the hand mocks him and ultimately escapes. Meanwhile, Knowby's daughter Annie, and her research partner, Ed Getley, return from the dig with the missing pages of the ''Necronomicon'', only to find the destroyed bridge. They enlist repairman Jake and his girlfriend Bobby Joe to show them another route to the cabin, where they find an embattled Ash covered in blood. Thinking that he murdered her parents, Annie and the others lock him in the cellar.

The four new arrivals listen to the rest of Knowby's recording, detailing how his wife Henrietta was possessed by the Kandarian Demon, and that he killed her and buried her in the cellar. Henrietta, now a deadite, possesses Ed; Ash dismembers him with an axe. Bobby Joe tries to escape, but demonically possessed trees attack and drag her to her death. Annie translates two of the ''Necronomicon'' s pages before Jake turns on them and throws the pages into the cellar, forcing them at gunpoint to find Bobby Joe. Ash becomes possessed once again and attacks Jake. Annie retreats to the cabin and accidentally stabs Jake (mistaking him for the possessed Ash) before Henrietta kills him. Deadite Ash tries to kill Annie, but returns to his normal self upon seeing Linda's necklace.

With Annie's help, Ash modifies the chainsaw, attaches it to the stump of his right arm, and cuts the shotgun's barrel. After finding the missing pages of the ''Necronomicon'' in the cellar, Ash kills Henrietta. The trees outside begin to destroy the cabin. Annie reveals that she has only read the first half of the incantation and attempts to finish the second half. As she reads it, Ash's severed hand uses a Kandarian dagger to stab her in the back. She manages to complete the incantation before succumbing to her wound. The incantation opens up a whirling temporal vortex which not only draws in the demon, but also Ash and his Oldsmobile Delta 88.

Ash and his Oldsmobile land in the Middle Ages. A group of knights confront him and initially mistake him for a deadite, but are quickly distracted when a real harpy-like deadite appears. Ash blasts it with his shotgun and they hail him as a hero who has come to save them, causing him to break down and scream in anguish.

The Trial

On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K., the chief cashier of a bank, is unexpectedly arrested by two unidentified agents from an unspecified agency for an unspecified crime. Josef is not imprisoned, however, but left "free" and told to await instructions from the Committee of Affairs. Josef's landlady, Frau Grubach, tries to console Josef about the trial, but insinuates that the procedure may be related to an immoral relationship with his neighbor Fräulein Bürstner. Josef visits Bürstner to vent his worries, and then kisses her.

A few days later, Josef finds that Fräulein Montag, a lodger from another room, has moved in with Fräulein Bürstner. He suspects that this maneuver is meant to distance him from Bürstner. Josef is ordered to appear at the court's address the coming Sunday, without being told the exact time or room. After a period of exploration, Josef finds the court in the attic. Josef is severely reproached for his tardiness, and he arouses the assembly's hostility after a passionate plea about the absurdity of the trial and the emptiness of the accusation.

Josef later tries to confront the presiding judge over his case, but only finds an attendant's wife. The woman gives him information about the process and attempts to seduce him before a law student bursts into the room and takes the woman away, claiming her to be his mistress. The woman's husband then takes Josef on a tour of the court offices, which ends after Josef becomes extremely weak in the presence of other court officials and accused.

One evening, in a storage room at his own bank, Josef discovers the two agents who arrested him being whipped by a flogger for asking Josef for bribes and as a result of complaints Josef made at court. Josef tries to argue with the flogger, saying that the men need not be whipped, but the flogger cannot be swayed. The next day he returns to the storage room and is shocked to find everything as he had found it the day before, including the whipper and the two agents.

Josef is visited by his uncle, a traveling countryman. Worried by the rumors about his nephew, the uncle introduces Josef to Herr Huld, a sickly and bedridden lawyer tended to by Leni, a young nurse who shows an immediate attraction to Josef. During the conversation, Leni calls Josef away and takes him to the next room for a sexual encounter. Afterward, Josef meets his angry uncle outside, who claims that Josef's lack of respect for the process has hurt his case.

During subsequent visits to Huld, Josef realizes that he is a capricious character who will not be much help to him. At the bank, one of Josef's clients recommends him to seek the advice of Titorelli, the court's official painter. Titorelli has no real influence within the court, but his deep experience of the process is painfully illuminating to Josef, and he can only suggest complex and unpleasant hypothetical options, as no definitive acquittal has ever been managed. Josef finally decides to dismiss Huld and take control of matters himself. Upon arriving at Huld's office, Josef meets a downtrodden individual, Rudi Block, a client who offers Josef some insight from a client's perspective. Block's case has continued for five years and he has gone from being a successful businessman to being almost bankrupt and is virtually enslaved by his dependence on the lawyer and Leni, with whom he appears to be sexually involved. The lawyer mocks Block in front of Josef for his dog-like subservience. This experience further poisons Josef's opinion of his lawyer.

Josef is put in charge of accompanying an important Italian client to the city's cathedral. While inside the cathedral, a priest calls Josef by name and tells him a fable (which was published earlier as "Before the Law") that is meant to explain his situation. The priest tells Josef that the parable is an ancient text of the court, and many generations of court officials have interpreted it differently. On the eve of Josef's thirty-first birthday, two men arrive at his apartment to execute him. They lead him to a small quarry outside the city, and kill him with a butcher's knife. Josef summarizes his situation with his last words: "Like a dog!"

The Metamorphosis

Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a "monstrous vermin". He initially considers the transformation to be temporary and slowly ponders the consequences of this metamorphosis. Stuck on his back and unable to get up and leave the bed, Gregor reflects on his job as a traveling salesman and cloth merchant, which he characterizes as being full of "temporary and constantly changing human relationships, which never come from the heart". He sees his employer as a despot and would quickly quit his job if he were not his family's sole breadwinner and working off his bankrupt father's debts. While trying to move, Gregor finds that his office manager, the chief clerk, has shown up to check on him, indignant about Gregor's unexcused absence. Gregor attempts to communicate with both the manager and his family, but all they can hear from behind the door is incomprehensible vocalizations. Gregor laboriously drags himself across the floor and opens the door. The clerk, upon seeing the transformed Gregor, flees the apartment. Gregor's family is horrified, and his father drives him back into his room, injuring his side by shoving him when he gets stuck in the doorway.

With Gregor's unexpected transformation, his family is deprived of financial stability. They keep Gregor locked in his room, and he begins to accept his new identity and adapt to his new body. His sister Grete is the only one willing to bring him food, which they find Gregor only likes if it is rotten. He spends much of his time crawling around on the floor, walls, and ceiling and, upon discovering Gregor's new pastime, Grete decides to remove his furniture to give him more space. She and her mother begin to empty the room of everything, except the sofa under which Gregor hides whenever anyone comes in, but he finds their actions deeply distressing in fear that he might forget his past, while he still was a human, and desperately tries to save a particularly loved portrait on the wall of a woman clad in fur. His mother loses consciousness at the sight of him clinging to the image to protect it. When Grete rushes out of the room to get some aromatic spirits, Gregor follows her and is slightly hurt when she drops a medicine bottle and it breaks. Their father returns home and angrily hurls apples at Gregor, one of which becomes lodged in a sensitive spot in his back and severely wounds him.

Gregor suffers from his injuries for the rest of his life and takes very little food. His father, mother, and sister all get jobs and increasingly begin to neglect him, and his room begins to be used for storage. For a time, his family leaves Gregor's door open in the evenings so he can listen to them talk to each other, but this happens less frequently once they rent a room in the apartment to three male tenants, since they are not told about Gregor. One day the charwoman, who briefly looks in on Gregor each day when she arrives and before she leaves, neglects to close his door fully. Attracted by Grete's violin-playing in the living room, Gregor crawls out and is spotted by the unsuspecting tenants, who complain about the apartment's unhygienic conditions and say they are leaving, will not pay anything for the time they have already stayed, and may take legal action. Grete, who has tired of taking care of Gregor and realizes the burden his existence puts on each member of the family, tells her parents they must get rid of "it" or they will all be ruined. Gregor, understanding that he is no longer wanted, laboriously makes his way back to his room and dies of starvation before sunrise. His body is discovered by the charwoman, who alerts his family and then disposes of the corpse. The relieved and optimistic father, mother, and sister all take the day off work. They travel by tram into the countryside and make plans to move to a smaller apartment to save money. During the short trip, Mr. and Mrs. Samsa realize that, despite the hardships that have brought some paleness to her face, Grete has grown up into a pretty young lady with a good figure and they think about finding her a husband.

Fahrenheit 451

''Fahrenheit 451'' is set in an unspecified city in the year 2049 (according to Ray Bradbury's Coda), though it is written as if set in a distant future.During Captain Beatty's recounting of the history of the firemen to Montag, he says, "Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery; where there's your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more." The text is ambiguous regarding which century he is claiming began this pattern. One interpretation is that he means the 20th century, which would place the novel in at least the 24th century. "The Fireman" novella, which was expanded to become ''Fahrenheit 451'', is set in October 2052. The earliest editions make clear that it takes place no earlier than the year 1960.In early editions of the book, Montag says, "We've started and won two atomic wars since 1960", in the first pages of ''The Sieve and the Sand''. This sets a lower bound on the time setting. In later decades, some editions have changed this year to 1990 or 2022.

The novel is divided into three parts: "The Hearth and the Salamander," "The Sieve and the Sand," and "Burning Bright."

### "The Hearth and the Salamander"

Guy Montag is a fireman employed to burn outlawed books, along with the houses they are hidden in. He is married but has no children. One fall night while returning from work, he meets his new neighbor, a teenage girl named Clarisse McClellan, whose free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit cause him to question his life and his own perceived happiness. Montag returns home to find that his wife Mildred has overdosed on sleeping pills, and he calls for medical attention. Two uncaring EMTs pump Mildred's stomach, drain her poisoned blood, and fill her with new blood. After the EMTs leave to rescue another overdose victim, Montag goes outside and overhears Clarisse and her family talking about the way life is in this hedonistic, illiterate society. Montag's mind is bombarded with Clarisse's subversive thoughts and the memory of his wife's near-death. Over the next few days, Clarisse faithfully meets Montag each night as he walks home. She tells him about how her simple pleasures and interests make her an outcast among her peers and how she is forced to go to therapy for her behavior and thoughts. Montag looks forward to these meetings, and just as he begins to expect them, Clarisse goes missing. He senses something is wrong.

In the following days, while at work with the other firemen ransacking the book-filled house of an old woman and drenching it in kerosene before the inevitable burning, Montag steals a book before any of his coworkers notice. The woman refuses to leave her house and her books, choosing instead to light a match and burn herself alive. Jarred by the woman's suicide, Montag returns home and hides the stolen book under his pillow. Later, Montag wakes Mildred from her sleep and asks her if she has seen or heard anything about Clarisse McClellan. She reveals that Clarisse's family moved away after Clarisse was hit by a speeding car and died four days ago. Dismayed by her failure to mention this earlier, Montag uneasily tries to fall asleep. Outside he suspects the presence of "The Mechanical Hound", an eight-legged robotic dog-like creature that resides in the firehouse and aids the firemen in hunting book hoarders.

Montag awakens ill the next morning. Mildred tries to care for her husband but finds herself more involved in the "parlor wall" entertainment in the living room – large televisions filling the walls. Montag suggests that maybe he should take a break from being a fireman after what happened last night, and Mildred panics over the thought of losing the house and her parlor wall "family". Captain Beatty, Montag's fire chief, personally visits Montag to see how he is doing. Sensing his concerns, Beatty recounts the history of how books lost their value and how the firemen were adapted for their current role: over the course of several decades, people began to embrace new media (in this case, film and television), sports, and an ever-quickening pace of life. Books were ruthlessly abridged or degraded to accommodate short attention spans. At the same time, advances in technology resulted in nearly all buildings being made out of fireproof materials, and the traditional role of firemen in preventing fires was no longer necessary. The government instead turned the firemen into officers of society's peace of mind: instead of putting out fires, they became responsible for starting them, specifically for the purpose of burning books, which were condemned as sources of confusing and depressing thoughts that only complicated people's lives. After an awkward exchange between Mildred and Montag over the book hidden under Montag's pillow, Beatty becomes suspicious and casually adds a passing threat as he leaves, telling Montag that if a fireman had a book, he would be asked to burn it within the following twenty-four hours. If he refused, the other firemen would come and burn it for him. The encounter leaves Montag shaken.

After Beatty leaves, Montag reveals to Mildred that, over the last year, he has accumulated a stash of books that he has kept hidden in the air-conditioning duct in their ceiling. In a panic, Mildred grabs a book and rushes to throw it in the kitchen incinerator. Montag subdues her and tells her that the two of them are going to read the books to see if they have value. If they do not, he promises the books will be burned and all will return to normal.

### "The Sieve and the Sand"

Montag and Mildred discuss the stolen books, and Mildred refuses to go along with it, questioning why she or anyone else should care about books. Montag goes on a rant about Mildred's suicide attempt, Clarisse's disappearance and death, the old woman who burned herself, and the imminent threat of war that goes ignored by the masses. He suggests that perhaps the books of the past have messages that can save society from its own destruction. The conversation is interrupted by a call from Mildred's friend, Mrs. Bowles, and they set up a date to watch the "parlor walls" that night at Mildred's house.

Montag concedes that Mildred is a lost cause and he will need help to understand the books. He remembers an old man named Faber, an English professor before books were banned, whom he once met in a park. Montag makes a subway trip to Faber's home along with a rare copy of the Bible, the book he stole at the woman's house. Once there, Montag forces the scared and reluctant Faber into helping him by methodically ripping pages from the Bible. Faber concedes and gives Montag a homemade earpiece communicator so that he can offer constant guidance.

At home, Mildred's friends, Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps arrive to watch the "parlor walls." Not interested in this insipid entertainment, Montag turns off the walls and tries to engage the women in meaningful conversation, only for them to reveal just how indifferent, ignorant, and callous they truly are. Enraged by their idiocy, Montag leaves momentarily and returns with a book of poetry. This confuses the women and alarms Faber, who is listening remotely. Mildred tries to dismiss Montag's actions as a tradition firemen act out once a year: they find an old book and read it as a way to make fun of how silly the past is. Montag proceeds to recite the poem ''Dover Beach'', causing Mrs. Phelps to cry. At the behest of Faber in the earpiece, Montag burns the book. Mildred's friends leave in disgust, while Mildred locks herself in the bathroom and attempts to kill herself again by overdosing on sleeping pills.

Montag hides his books in the backyard before returning to the firehouse late at night, where he finds Beatty playing cards with the other firemen. Montag hands Beatty a book to cover for the one he believes Beatty knows he stole the night before, which is unceremoniously tossed into the trash. Beatty tells Montag that he had a dream in which they fought endlessly by quoting books to each other. Thus Beatty reveals that, despite his disillusionment, he was once an enthusiastic reader. A fire alarm sounds and Beatty picks up the address from the dispatcher system. They drive recklessly in the fire truck to the destination: Montag's house.

### "Burning Bright"

Beatty orders Montag to destroy his house with a flamethrower, rather than the more powerful "salamander" that is usually used by the fire team, and tells him that his wife and her friends reported him after what happened the other night. Montag watches as Mildred walks out of the house, too traumatized about losing her parlor wall family to even acknowledge her husband's existence or the situation going on around her, and catches a taxi. Montag obeys the chief, destroying the home piece by piece, but Beatty discovers Montag's earpiece and plans to hunt down Faber. Montag threatens Beatty with the flamethrower and, after Beatty taunts him, Montag burns Beatty alive and knocks his co-workers unconscious. As Montag escapes the scene, the Mechanical Hound attacks him, managing to inject his leg with an anesthetic. He destroys the Hound with the flamethrower and limps away. Before he escapes, however, he concludes that Beatty had wanted to die a long time ago and had purposely goaded Montag as well as provided him with a weapon.

Montag runs through the city streets towards Faber's house. On his way, he crosses a wide road as a speeding car attempts to run him over, but he manages to evade the vehicle, and realizes he almost suffered the same fate as Clarisse. Faber urges him to make his way to the countryside and contact the exiled book-lovers who live there. He mentions he will be leaving on an early bus heading to St. Louis and that he and Montag can rendezvous there later. On Faber's television, they watch news reports of another Mechanical Hound being released to track down and kill Montag, with news helicopters following it to create a public spectacle. After wiping his scent from around the house in hopes of thwarting the Hound, Montag leaves Faber's house. He escapes the manhunt by wading into a river and floating downstream. Montag leaves the river in the countryside, where he meets the exiled drifters, led by a man named Granger. Granger shows Montag the ongoing manhunt on a portable battery TV and predicts that “Montag” will be caught within the next few minutes; as predicted, an innocent man is then caught and killed.

The drifters are all former intellectuals. They have each memorized books should the day arrive that society comes to an end and is forced to rebuild itself anew, with the survivors learning to embrace the literature of the past. Granger asks Montag what he has to contribute to the group and Montag finds that he had partially memorized the Book of Ecclesiastes, discovering that the group has a special way of unlocking photographic memory. While learning the philosophy of the exiles, Montag and the group watch helplessly as bombers fly overhead and annihilate the city with nuclear weapons: the imminent war has begun and ended in the same night. While Faber would have left on the early bus, everyone else (possibly including Mildred) is immediately killed. Montag and the group are injured and dirtied, but manage to survive the shockwave.

The following morning, Granger teaches Montag and the others about the legendary phoenix and its endless cycle of long life, death in flames, and rebirth. He adds that the phoenix must have some relationship to mankind, which constantly repeats its mistakes, but explains that man has something the phoenix does not: mankind can remember its mistakes and try to never repeat them. Granger then muses that a large factory of mirrors should be built so that people can take a long look at themselves and reflect on their lives. When the meal is over, the exiles return to the city to rebuild society.

Fearless (1993 film)

Max Klein survives an airline crash. The plane plummets, but strangely Max is calm. His calm enables him to dispel fear in the flight cabin. He sits next to Byron Hummel, a young boy flying alone. Flight attendants move through the cabin, telling another passenger, Carla Rodrigo, traveling with an infant, to hold the infant in her lap as the plane plummets out of control, while telling other passengers to buckle into their seats. Max was telling his business partner, Jeff Gordon, of his fear of flying as they took off.

In the aftermath of the crash, most passengers died. Among the few survivors, most are terribly injured. Max is unhurt. The crash site is chaotic, filled with first responders and other emergency personnel. Focusing on the survivors, a team of investigators from the FAA and the airline company conduct interviews. Max is repelled by all the chaos. He is disgusted by the investigators wanting to interview him.

Max rents a car and starts driving home. Along the way he meets an old girlfriend from high school, Alison. They last met 20 years ago. At the restaurant Alison notices Max eating a strawberry. Max is allergic to strawberries. Max grins. He finishes the strawberry without an allergic reaction. The next morning, he is accosted by FBI investigators. They question his choice to not contact family to tell them he is fine. The airline representative offers him train tickets. Max asks for airline tickets. He wants to fly home, having no fear of air travel. The airline books him on the flight. They seat him next to Dr. Bill Perlman, the airline's psychiatrist.

Dr. Perlman annoyingly tags behind Max back to his home, prodding him for information about the crash. Max is forced to snap back at the psychiatrist rudely, to be rid of him. Laura Klein, Max's wife, notices the strange behavior. Max seems different, changed somehow. Max's late business partner's wife, Nan Gordon, asks about Jeff's last moments. Max says Jeff died in the crash.

The media call Max "The Good Samaritan" in news reports. The boy Max sat next to, Byron, publicly thanks him in television interviews, for the way he comforted passengers while the plane fell out of control during the crash. Max is a hero.

Max avoids the press and becomes distant from Laura and his son Jonah. His persona is radically changed. He is preoccupied with his new perspective on life following his near-death experience. He begins drawing abstract pictures of the crash. As he survived without injury, he thinks himself invulnerable to death. Because of his confidence, Dr. Perlman encourages Max to meet with another survivor, Carla Rodrigo, whose infant was held in her lap while the plane fell. Carla struggles with survivor's guilt, and is traumatized for not holding onto him tightly enough, although she was following the flight attendant's instructions. Max and Carla develop a close friendship. He helps her to get past the trauma, to free herself from guilt, deliberately crashing his car to show that it was physically impossible for any person to hold onto anything due to the forces of the crash.

Attorney Steven Brillstein encourages Max to exaggerate testimony, to maximize the settlement offer from the airline. Max reluctantly agrees when he is confronted with Nan's financial predicament as a widow. Cognitive dissonance spurs Max to a panic attack. He runs out of the office, to the roof of the building. He climbs onto the roof's edge. As Max stands on the ledge, looking down at the streets below, his panic subsides. He rejoices in fearlessness. Laura finds Max on the ledge. He is spinning around on the ledge with his overcoat billowing across his face.

Brillstein arrives at the Klein home to celebrate the airline's settlement offer. He brings a fruit basket. Max eats one of the strawberries. This time he experiences an allergic reaction. Max is resuscitated by Laura and survives. He recovers his emotional connection to his family, to the world and to the reality of yet another chance at life.

The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix

Full-scale replica of ''Il Tempo Gigante'' Model of ''Il Tempo Gigante'' In the village of Flåklypa, (En. Pinchcliffe), the inventor Reodor Felgen (En. Theodore Rimspoke) lives with his animal friends Ludvig (En. Lambert) (a nervous, pessimistic and melancholic hedgehog) and Solan Gundersen (En. Sonny Duckworth) (a cheerful and optimistic magpie). Reodor works as a bicycle repairman, though he spends most of his time inventing weird Rube Goldberg-like contraptions. One day, the trio discovers that one of Reodor's former assistants, Rudolf Blodstrupmoen (En. Rudolph Gore-Slimey), has stolen his design for a race car engine and has become a world champion Formula One driver. Solan secures funding from Arab oil sheik Ben Redic Fy Fazan (En. Abdul Ben Bonanza), who happens to be vacationing in Flåklypa, and to enter the race, the trio builds a gigantic racing car: ''Il Tempo Gigante''—a fabulous construction with two extremely big engines (weighing 2.8 tonnes alone and making the seismometer in Bergen show 7.8 Richter when started the first time), a body made out of copper, a spinning radar (that turns out to be useful when Blodstrupmoen starts engaging in smoke warfare during the race), super-retometric distributor and its own blood bank. Reodor ends up winning despite Blodstrupmoen's attempts at sabotage.

Four Weddings and a Funeral

At the wedding of Angus and Laura in Somerset, the unmarried best man Charles, his flatmate Scarlett; his friend Fiona and her brother Tom; Gareth and his Scottish partner Matthew; and Charles's deaf brother David endure the festivities. At the reception, Charles becomes smitten with Caroline (Carrie), a young American, and they spend the night together. In the morning, Carrie jokingly demands that Charles propose to her, observing they may have "missed a great opportunity", and then leaves for the U.S.

Three months later, at the wedding of Bernard and Lydia in London, who became involved at the previous wedding, Charles meets Carrie again, who is now accompanied by her Scottish fiancé Hamish. Charles faces further humiliation from several of his ex-girlfriends, including the distraught Henrietta, and retreats to an empty hotel suite, where he watches Carrie and Hamish depart. He becomes trapped in the room when the newlyweds stumble in to have sex. Later, he is confronted by an angry Henrietta about his habit of "serial monogamy" and his fear of letting anyone get too close. Carrie reappears, and she and Charles spend another night together.

A month later, Charles receives an invitation to Carrie's wedding. While shopping for a gift, he runs into her and helps select a wedding dress. She recounts her 33 sexual partners; Charles, who was number 32, soon awkwardly confesses his love to her, but is unsuccessful.

Another month later, Charles and his friends attend Carrie's wedding in Scotland. The gregarious Gareth instructs the group to seek potential mates; Scarlett hits it off with an American, Chester. As Charles watches Carrie and Hamish dance, Fiona deduces his heartbreak. When he asks Fiona why she is single, she confesses that she has loved Charles since they first met; though sympathetic to her feelings, Charles does not reciprocate them. During the bridegroom's toast, Gareth suddenly dies of a heart attack.

At Gareth's funeral, Matthew recites the poem "Funeral Blues" by English-American poet W. H. Auden, commemorating his relationship with Gareth and calling Auden "another splendid bugger". Afterward, Carrie and Charles share a brief moment, and Charles and Tom ponder the fact that despite their clique's pride in being single, Gareth and Matthew were a "married" couple all the while, and whether the search for "one true love" is futile.

Ten months later, Charles's own wedding day arrives; the bride turns out to be Henrietta. Tom, while seating guests, is struck with love at first sight with his distant cousin Deirdre, whom he had met 25 years before when they were children. Shortly before the wedding ceremony, Carrie arrives and tells Charles that she and Hamish have separated. He has a crisis of confidence and is counseled by David and Matthew, but proceeds with the wedding. When the vicar asks for any reason why the couple should not marry, however, the deaf David says in sign language that he suspects the bridegroom loves someone else, which Charles confirms. Henrietta angrily punches him, and the wedding is stopped.

Carrie tries to apologise to Charles, who confesses that, at the altar, he realised she was the one person he truly loved, and that he's loved her since the first second he met her. Charles, who fears marriage, proposes a lifelong commitment without marriage to Carrie, and she accepts it by saying "I do". As they kiss a thunderbolt flashes across the sky.

At the end of the film, Henrietta marries an officer in the Grenadier Guards; David marries his girlfriend Serena, whom he met at the second wedding; Scarlett marries Chester; Tom marries Deirdre; Matthew finds a new male partner; Fiona is shown in a picture with Prince Charles; and Charles and Carrie have a baby.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

In 2065, Earth is infested by alien life forms known as Phantoms. By physical contact Phantoms consume the Gaia spirit of living beings, killing them instantly, although minor contact may only result in an infection. The surviving humans live in "barrier cities" protected by energy shields that prevent Phantoms from entering, and are engaged in an ongoing struggle to free the planet. After being infected by a Phantom during one of her experiments, scientist Dr. Aki Ross (Ming-Na Wen) and her mentor, Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland) discover a means of defeating the Phantoms by gathering eight spirits, unique energy patterns contained by various lifeforms. When joined, the resulting energy wave can negate the Phantoms. Aki searches for the sixth spirit in the ruins of New York City when she is cornered by Phantoms but rescued by Captain Gray Edwards (Alec Baldwin) and his squad Deep Eyes, consisting of Master Sergeant Ryan Whittaker (Ving Rhames), Neil Fleming (Steve Buscemi) and Corporal Jane Proudfoot (Peri Gilpin). It is revealed that Gray was once romantically involved with Aki.

Returning to her barrier city, Aki joins Sid and appears before the leadership council along with General Douglas Hein (James Woods). Hein is determined to use the Zeus cannon, a powerful weapon aboard a space station, to destroy the Phantoms, though Sid is concerned the cannon will damage Earth's Gaia (a spirit representing its ecosystem). Aki delays the use of the cannon by revealing that she has been infected and the collected spirits are keeping her infection stable, convincing the council that there may be another way to defeat the Phantoms. However, this revelation leads Hein to incorrectly conclude that she is being controlled by the Phantoms. Aki and the Deep Eyes squad succeed in finding the seventh spirit as Aki's infection begins to worsen and she slips into unconsciousness. Her dream reveals to her that the Phantoms are the spirits of dead aliens brought to Earth on a fragment of their destroyed planet. Sid uses the seventh spirit to bring Aki's infection back under control, reviving her.

To scare the council into giving him clearance to fire the Zeus cannon, Hein lowers part of the barrier shield protecting the city. Though Hein intended that only a few Phantoms enter, his plan goes awry and legions of Phantoms invade the entire city. Aki, Sid and the Deep Eyes attempt to reach Aki's spaceship, their means of escape, but Ryan, Neil and Jane are killed by Phantoms. Hein escapes and boards the Zeus cannon's space station, where he finally receives authorization to fire the cannon.

Sid finds the eighth spirit at the crater site of the alien asteroid's impact on Earth. He lowers a shielded vehicle, with Aki and Gray aboard, into the crater to locate the final spirit. Just before they can reach it, Hein fires the Zeus cannon into the crater, not only destroying the eighth spirit but also revealing the Phantom Gaia. Aki has a vision of the Phantom home planet, where she is able to receive the eighth spirit from the alien particles in herself. When Aki awakens, she and Gray combine it with the other seven. Hein continues to fire the Zeus cannon despite overheating warnings and unintentionally destroys the cannon and himself. Gray sacrifices himself as a medium needed to physically transmit the completed spirit into the alien Gaia. The Earth's Gaia is returned to normal as the Phantoms ascend into space, finally at peace. Aki is pulled from the crater holding Gray's body, and is seen looking into the newly liberated world.

Four Feather Falls

The series is set in the fictitious late 19th-century Western town of Four Feather Falls, Kansas, and features the adventures of its sheriff, Tex Tucker. In the first episode, Grandpa Twink relates the story of how it all began to his grandson, Little Jake. Tex is riding up from the valley and comes across a lost and hungry Indian boy, Makooya, and saves him. Tex is given four magic feathers by the boy's grandfather, Chief Kalamakooya, as a reward for saving his grandson. Two of the feathers allow his guns to swivel and fire automatically (often while Tex's hands are raised), and the other two allow his horse, Rocky, and his dog, Dusty, to speak. As Tex, his horse, and dog are very thirsty, Kalamakooya also makes a waterfall where there had been no water before, and so when the town was built it was named after Tex's feathers and the waterfall.

The characters of the town are Grandpa Twink, who does little but rest in a chair; his grandson Little Jake, the only child in town; Ma Jones, who runs the town store; Doc Haggerty; Slim Jim, the bartender of the Denison saloon; Marvin Jackson, the bank manager; and Dan Morse, the telegraphist. Other characters appeared from time to time for only one episode, often just visiting town. The villains included Pedro, who was introduced in the first show and Fernando, who first appeared in the second episode as a sidekick and someone Pedro could blame when things went wrong, as they always did. Big Ben was another villain who appeared from time to time, as did Red Scalp, a renegade Indian. Other villains only appeared in single episodes.

Show Me Love (film)

Two girls, Agnes and Elin, attend school in the small town of Åmål, Sweden. Elin is outgoing and popular but finds her life unsatisfying and dull. Agnes, by contrast, has no real friends and is constantly depressed. Agnes is in love with Elin but cannot find any way to express it.

Agnes's parents worry about their daughter's reclusive life and try to be reassuring. Her mother decides, against Agnes's will, to throw a 16th birthday party for her. Agnes is afraid no one will come. Viktoria, a girl in a wheelchair, shows up and Agnes shouts at her in front of her parents, telling her they are friends only because no one else will talk to them. Agnes, overcome with anger and depression, goes to her room and cries into her pillow shouting that she wishes she were dead, while her father tries to soothe her. Viktoria leaves and Agnes's family eats the food made for the party.

Elin arrives at Agnes's house, mainly as an excuse to avoid going to another party, where there will be a boy (Johan, played by Mathias Rust) she wants to avoid. Elin's older sister, Jessica, who comes with her, dares her to kiss Agnes, who is rumoured to be a lesbian. Elin fulfills the dare and then runs out with Jessica, only to soon feel guilty for having humiliated Agnes.

After becoming drunk at the other party, Elin gets sick and throws up. Johan tries to help her and ends up professing his love to her. Elin leaves Johan and the party, only to return to Agnes's house to apologize for how she acted earlier. In doing so, Elin stops Agnes from cutting herself. She even manages to persuade Agnes to return with her to the other party. On the way, Elin shares her real feelings about being trapped in Åmål. She asks Agnes about being a lesbian and believes that their problems could be solved by leaving Åmål and going to Stockholm. On impulse, Elin persuades Agnes to hitchhike to Stockholm, which is a five-hour journey by car. They find a driver who agrees to take them, believing them to be sisters who are visiting their grandmother. While sitting in the back seat, they have their first real kiss. The driver sees them and, shocked at the behaviour of the two 'sisters', orders them to leave the car.

Elin discovers that she is attracted to Agnes but is afraid to admit it. She proceeds to ignore Agnes and refuses to talk to her. Elin's sister Jessica sees that she is in love and pushes her to figure out who it is. To cover the fact that she is in love with Agnes, Elin lies, pretending to be in love with Johan, and loses her virginity during a short-lived relationship with him. Elin eventually admits her feelings, when, after a climactic scene in a school bathroom, they are forced to 'out' their relationship to the school.

The film ends with Elin and Agnes sitting in Elin's bedroom drinking chocolate milk. Elin explains that she often adds too much chocolate until her milk is nearly black. She must fill another glass with milk and mix it and that her sister Jessica often gets mad that she finishes the chocolate. Elin has the last word saying "It makes a lot of chocolate milk. But that doesn't matter."

Follies

In 1971, on the soon-to-be-demolished stage of the Weismann Theatre, a reunion is being held to honor the Weismann's ''Follies'' shows past and the beautiful chorus girls who performed there every year between the two world wars. The once resplendent theater is now little but planks and scaffolding ("Prologue"/"Overture"). As the ghosts of the young showgirls slowly drift through the theater, a majordomo enters with his entourage of waiters and waitresses. They pass through the spectral showgirls without seeing them.

Sally Durant Plummer, "blond, petite, sweet-faced" and at 49 "still remarkably like the girl she was thirty years ago",Sondheim, Stephen, and Goldman, James.[https://books.google.com/books?id=ANllScAXhgoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Sondheim+Follies&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false "Act 1"] ''Follies''. Theatre Communications Group, 2001, , pp. 2-3, 71 a former Weismann girl, is the first guest to arrive, and her ghostly youthful counterpart moves towards her. Phyllis Rogers Stone, a stylish and elegant woman, arrives with her husband Ben, a renowned philanthropist and politician. As their younger counterparts approach them, Phyllis comments to Ben about their past. He feigns a lack of interest; there is an underlying tension in their relationship. As more guests arrive, Sally's husband, Buddy, enters. He is a salesman, in his early 50s, appealing and lively, whose smiles cover inner disappointment.

Finally, Weismann enters to greet his guests. Roscoe, the old master of ceremonies, introduces the former showgirls ("Beautiful Girls"). Former Weismann performers at the reunion include Max and Stella Deems, who lost their radio jobs and became store owners in Miami; Solange La Fitte, a coquette, who is vibrant and flirtatious even at 66; Hattie Walker, who has outlived five younger husbands; Vincent and Vanessa, former dancers who now own an Arthur Murray franchise; Heidi Schiller, for whom Franz Lehár once wrote a waltz ("or was it Oscar Straus?" Facts never interest her; what matters is the song!); and Carlotta Campion, a film star who has embraced life and benefited from every experience.

As the guests reminisce, the stories of Ben, Phyllis, Buddy, and Sally unfold. Phyllis and Sally were roommates while in the Follies, and Ben and Buddy were best friends at school in New York. When Sally sees Ben, her former lover, she greets him self-consciously ("Don't Look at Me"). Buddy and Phyllis join their spouses and the foursome reminisces about the old days of their courtship and the theater, their memories vividly coming to life in the apparitions of their young counterparts ("Waiting For The Girls Upstairs"). Each of the four is shaken at the realization of how life has changed them. Elsewhere, Willy Wheeler (portly, in his sixties) cartwheels for a photographer. Emily and Theodore Whitman, ex-vaudevillians in their seventies, perform an old routine ("The Rain on the Roof"). Solange proves she is still fashionable at what she claims is 66 ("Ah, Paris!"), and Hattie Walker performs her old showstopping number ("Broadway Baby").

Buddy warns Phyllis that Sally is still in love with Ben, and she is shaken by how the past threatens to repeat itself. Sally is awed by Ben's apparently glamorous life, but Ben wonders if he made the right choices and considers how things might have been ("The Road You Didn't Take"). Sally tells Ben how her days have been spent with Buddy, trying to convince him (and herself) ("In Buddy's Eyes"). However, it is clear that Sally is still in love with Ben – even though their affair ended badly when Ben decided to marry Phyllis. She shakes loose from the memory and begins to dance with Ben, who is touched by the memory of the Sally he once cast aside.

Phyllis interrupts this tender moment and has a biting encounter with Sally. Before she has a chance to really let loose, they are both called on to participate in another performance – Stella Deems gets Sally, Phyllis, Emily, Hattie, and some others to perform an old number ("Who's That Woman?"), as they are mirrored by their younger selves. Afterward, Phyllis and Ben angrily discuss their lives and relationship, which has become numb and emotionless. Sally is bitter, having never been happy with Buddy, although he has always adored her. She accuses him of having affairs while he is on the road, and he admits he has a steady girlfriend, Margie, in another town, but always returns home. Carlotta amuses a throng of admirers with a tale of how her dramatic solo was cut from the Follies because the audience found it humorous, transforming it as she sings it into an anthem-like toast to her own hard-won survival ("I'm Still Here").

Ben confides to Sally that his life is empty. She yearns for him to hold her, but young Sally slips between them and the three move together ("Too Many Mornings"). Ben, caught in the passion of memories, kisses Sally as Buddy watches from the shadows. Sally thinks this is a sign that the two will finally get married, and Ben is about to protest until Sally interrupts him with a kiss and runs off to gather her things, thinking that the two will leave together. Buddy leaves the shadows furious, and fantasizes about the girl he should have married, Margie, who loves him and makes him feel like "a somebody", but bitterly concludes he does not love her back ("The Right Girl"). He tells Sally that he's done, but she is lost in a fantasy world and tells him that Ben has asked her to marry him. Buddy tells her she must be either crazy or drunk, but he's already supported Sally through rehab clinics and mental hospitals and cannot take any more. Ben drunkenly propositions Carlotta, with whom he once had a fling, but she has a young lover and coolly turns him down. Heidi Schiller, joined by her younger counterpart, performs "One More Kiss", her aged voice a stark contrast to the sparkling coloratura of her younger self. Phyllis kisses a waiter and confesses to him that she had always wanted a son. She then tells Ben that their marriage can't continue the way it has been. Ben replies by saying that he wants a divorce, and Phyllis assumes the request is due to his love for Sally. Ben denies this, but still wants Phyllis out of his life. Angry and hurt, Phyllis considers whether to grant his request ("Could I Leave You?").

Phyllis begins wondering at her younger self, who worked so hard to become the socialite that Ben needed. Ben yells at his younger self for not appreciating all the work that Phyllis did. Both Buddys enter to confront the Bens about how they stole Sally. Sally and her younger self enter and Ben firmly tells Sally that he never loved her. All the voices begin speaking and yelling at each other. Suddenly, at the peak of madness and confusion, the couples are engulfed by their follies, which transform the rundown theater into a fantastical "Loveland", an extravaganza even more grand and opulent than the gaudiest Weismann confection: "the place where lovers are always young and beautiful, and everyone lives only for love".[http://www.mtishows.com/show_detail.asp?showid=000037 "Synopsis"] mtishows.com. Retrieved August 30, 2010. Sally, Phyllis, Ben, and Buddy show their "real and emotional lives" in "a sort of group nervous breakdown".

What follows is a series of musical numbers performed by the principal characters, each exploring their biggest desires. The two younger couples sing in a counterpoint of their hopes for the future ("You're Gonna Love Tomorrow/Love Will See Us Through"). Buddy then appears, dressed in "plaid baggy pants, garish jacket, and a shiny derby hat", and performs a high-energy vaudeville routine depicting how he is caught between his love for Sally and Margie's love for him ("The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues"). Sally appears next, dressed as a torch singer, singing of her passion for Ben from the past - and her obsession with him now ("Losing My Mind"). In a jazzy dance number, accompanied by a squadron of chorus boys, Phyllis reflects on the two sides of her personality, one naive and passionate and the other jaded and sophisticated and her desire to combine them ("The Story of Lucy and Jessie"). Resplendent in top hat and tails, Ben begins to offer his devil-may-care philosophy ("Live, Laugh, Love"), but stumbles and anxiously calls to the conductor for the lyrics, as he frantically tries to keep going. Ben becomes frenzied, while the dancing ensemble continues as if nothing was wrong. Amidst a deafening discord, Ben screams at all the figures from his past and collapses as he cries out for Phyllis.

"Loveland" has dissolved back into the reality of the crumbling and half-demolished theater; dawn is approaching. Ben admits to Phyllis his admiration for her, and Phyllis shushes him and helps Ben regain his dignity before they leave. After exiting, Buddy escorts the emotionally devastated Sally back to their hotel with the promise to work things out later. Their ghostly younger selves appear, watching them go. The younger Ben and Buddy softly call to their "girls upstairs", and the Follies end.

Full Metal Jacket

During the Vietnam War, a group of recruits arrive at Parris Island to become Marines. Drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman uses harsh methods to turn the recruits into combat-ready Marines. Among the recruits is the overweight and dim-witted Leonard Lawrence, whom Hartman nicknames "Gomer Pyle", and the wisecracking J.T. Davis, who receives the name "Joker" after interrupting Hartman's introductory speech with an impression of John Wayne.

When Pyle shows ineptitude in basic training, Hartman pairs him with Joker, under whose supervision Pyle starts to improve. One day, Hartman discovers a jelly doughnut in Pyle's footlocker. Hartman blames the platoon for Pyle's infractions and adopts a collective punishment policy; he will punish the entire platoon, except for Pyle, for every mistake Pyle makes; Pyle's performance subsequently declines. One night, the recruits haze Pyle with a blanket party, in which Joker reluctantly participates. Following this, Pyle appears to reinvent himself as a model recruit, showing particular expertise in marksmanship. This pleases Hartman but worries Joker, who believes Pyle may be suffering a mental breakdown after seeing Pyle talking to his rifle. Nevertheless, the recruits graduate; most of them will be sent to Vietnam. On their final night on Parris Island, Davis discovers Lawrence in the bathroom, loudly reciting the Rifleman's Creed and brandishing his service rifle, which Davis observes him loading with live ammunition. Hartman attempts to intervene but is shot and killed by Lawrence, who subsequently commits suicide.

By January 1968, Davis is a sergeant and is based in Da Nang for the newspaper ''Stars and Stripes'' alongside his colleague Private First Class Rafterman, a combat photographer. The Tet Offensive begins and Davis' base is attacked, but holds. The following morning, Davis and Rafterman are sent to Phu Bai where Davis searches for and reunites with Sergeant "Cowboy", a friend he met at Parris Island. During the Battle of Huế, a booby trap kills the squad leader, leaving Cowboy in command. Becoming lost in the city, Cowboy tries to raise tank support but is killed by a Viet Cong sniper.

Assuming command, squad machine gunner "Animal Mother" leads an attack on the sniper. Davis locates her first, but his M-16 rifle jams, alerting the sniper to his presence. As the sniper opens fire, she is revealed to be a teenage girl. Rafterman shoots her, wounding her mortally. The squad discusses what to do while standing over her as she lies wounded. She painfully says "shoot me" several times, and Davis puts her out of her misery. Later, as night falls, the Marines return to camp singing the "Mickey Mouse March". A narration of Davis' thoughts overlays the singing saying that, despite being "in a world of shit", he is glad to be alive and no longer afraid.

Farmer Giles of Ham

Farmer Giles (''Ægidius Ahenobarbus Julius Agricola de Hammo'', "Giles Redbeard Julius, Farmer of Ham") is not a hero. He is fat and red-bearded and enjoys a slow, comfortable life. But a rather deaf and short-sighted giant blunders on to his land, and Giles manages to ward him away with a blunderbuss shot in his general direction. The people of the village cheer: Farmer Giles has become a hero. His reputation spreads across the kingdom, and he is rewarded by the King with a sword named Caudimordax ("Tailbiter")—which turns out to be a powerful weapon against dragons.

The giant, on returning home, relates to his friends that there are no more knights in the Middle Kingdom, just stinging flies—actually the scrap metal shot from the blunderbuss—and this entices a dragon, Chrysophylax Dives, to investigate the area. The terrified neighbours all expect the accidental hero Farmer Giles to deal with him.

The story parodies the great dragon-slaying traditions. The knights sent by the King to pursue the dragon are useless fops, more intent on "precedence and etiquette" than on the huge dragon footprints littering the landscape. The only part of a 'dragon' they know is the annual celebratory dragon-tail cake. Giles by contrast clearly recognises the danger, and resents being sent with them to face it. But hapless farmers can be forced to become heroes, and Giles shrewdly makes the best of the situation.

It has been suggested that the Middle Kingdom is based on early Mercia, and that Giles's break-away realm (the Little Kingdom) is based on Frithuwald's Surrey.

King Kong vs. Godzilla

Mr. Tako, head of Pacific Pharmaceuticals, is frustrated with the television shows his company is sponsoring and wants something to boost his ratings. When a doctor tells Tako about a giant monster he discovered on the small Faro Island, Tako believes that it would be a brilliant idea to use the monster to gain publicity. Tako immediately sends two men, Osamu Sakurai and Kinsaburo Furue, to find and bring back the monster. Meanwhile, the American nuclear submarine ''Seahawk'' gets caught in an iceberg. The iceberg collapses, unleashing Godzilla, who had been trapped within it since 1955. Godzilla then destroys the submarine and makes his way towards Japan, attacking a military base as he journeys southward.

On Faro Island, a gigantic octopus crawls ashore and attacks the native village in search of Farolacton juice, taken from a species of red berry native to the island. The mysterious Faro monster, revealed to be King Kong, arrives and defeats the octopus. Kong then drinks several vases full of the juice while the islanders perform a ceremony, which both cause him to fall asleep. Sakurai and Furue place Kong on a large raft and begin to transport him back to Japan. Mr. Tako arrives on the ship transporting Kong, but a JSDF ship stops them and orders them to return Kong to Faro Island. Meanwhile, Godzilla arrives in Japan and begins terrorizing the countryside. Kong wakes up and breaks free from the raft. Reaching the mainland, Kong confronts Godzilla and proceeds to throw giant rocks at Godzilla. Godzilla is not fazed by King Kong's rock attack and uses his atomic heat ray to burn him. Kong retreats after realizing that he is not yet ready to take on Godzilla and his atomic heat ray.

The JSDF digs a large pit laden with explosives and poison gas and lures Godzilla into it, but Godzilla is unharmed. They next string up a barrier of power lines around the city filled with 1,000,000 volts of electricity, which proves effective against Godzilla. Kong then approaches Tokyo and tears through the power lines, feeding off the electricity, which seems to make him stronger. Kong then enters Tokyo and captures Fumiko, Sakurai's sister, taking her to the National Diet Building which he then scales. The JSDF launches capsules full of vaporised Farolacton juice, which puts Kong to sleep, and are able to rescue Fumiko. The JSDF then decides to transport Kong via balloons to Godzilla, in hopes that they will kill each other.

The next morning, Kong is deployed by helicopter next to Godzilla at the summit of Mount Fuji and the two engage in a final battle. Godzilla initially has the advantage dazing Kong with a devastating dropkick and repeated tail blows to his head. Godzilla then attempts to burn Kong to death by using his Atomic Breath to set fire to the foliage around Kong's body. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning from thunder clouds strikes Kong, reviving him and charging him up, and the battle resumes. Godzilla and King Kong fight their way down the mountain and into Atami, where the two monsters destroy Atami Castle while trading blows, before falling off a cliff together into Sagami Bay. After a brief underwater battle, only Kong resurfaces from the water, victorious, and he begins to swim back toward his home island. There is no sign of Godzilla, but the JSDF speculates that it is possible he survived.

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep

After Yata is lost at sea, his brother Ryota steals a yacht with his two friends and a bank robber. However, the crew runs afoul of Ebirah, a giant lobster-like creature, and washes ashore on Letchi Island. There, the Red Bamboo, a terrorist organization, manufactures heavy water for selling weapons of mass destruction and a yellow liquid that keeps Ebirah at bay, presumably controlling him. The Red Bamboo has enslaved natives from nearby Infant Island to create the yellow liquid, while the natives hope that Mothra will awaken in her winged, adult form and rescue them.

In their efforts to avoid capture, Ryota and his friends, aided by Daiyo, a native girl, come across Godzilla, who previously fought Ghidorah and is now sleeping within a cliffside cavern. The group devises a plan to defeat the Red Bamboo and escape the island. In the process, they awaken Godzilla using a makeshift lightning rod. Godzilla fights Ebirah, but the huge crustacean escapes. Godzilla is then attacked by a giant condor and a squadron of Red Bamboo fighter jets. Using his atomic ray, Godzilla destroys the jets and kills the giant bird.

The humans retrieve the missing Yata and free the enslaved natives as Godzilla begins to destroy the Red Bamboo's base of operations, smashing a tower that causes a countdown that will destroy the island in a nuclear explosion. Godzilla fights Ebirah and defeats him, ripping his claws off, and forcing him to retreat into the sea. The natives await for Mothra to carry them off in a large net. However, when she gets to the island, Mothra is challenged by Godzilla due to a previous confrontation. Mothra manages to repel Godzilla and save her people and the human heroes. Godzilla also escapes just before the bomb detonates and destroys the island.

Son of Godzilla

A team of scientists are trying to perfect a weather-controlling system. Their efforts are hampered by the arrival of a nosy reporter and by the sudden presence of giant praying mantises. The first test of the weather control system goes awry when the remote control for a radioactive balloon is jammed by an unexplained signal coming from the center of the island. The balloon detonates prematurely, creating a radioactive storm that causes the giant mantises to grow to enormous sizes. Investigating the mantises, which are named Kamacuras (Gimantis in the English-dubbed version), the scientists find the monstrous insects digging an egg out from under a pile of earth. The egg hatches, revealing a baby Godzilla. The scientists realize that the baby's telepathic cries for help were the cause of the interference that ruined their experiment. Shortly afterwards, Godzilla arrives on the island in response to the infant's cries, demolishing the scientist's base while rushing to defend the baby. Godzilla kills two of the Kamacuras during the battle while one manages to fly away to safety, Godzilla then adopts the baby.

The baby Godzilla, named Minilla, quickly grows to about half the size of the adult Godzilla and Godzilla instructs it on the important monster skills of roaring and using its atomic ray. At first, Minilla has difficulty producing anything more than atomic smoke rings, but Godzilla discovers that stressful conditions (i.e. stomping on his tail) or motivation produces a true radioactive blast. Minilla comes to the aid of Saeko when she is attacked by a Kamacuras, but inadvertently awakens Kumonga (Spiga in the English-dubbed version), a giant spider that was sleeping in a valley. Kumonga attacks the caves where the scientists are hiding and Minilla stumbles into the fray.

Kumonga traps Minilla and the final Kamacuras with its webbing, but as Kumonga begins to feed on the deceased Kamacuras, Godzilla arrives. Godzilla saves Minilla and they work together to defeat Kumonga by using their atomic rays on the giant spider. Hoping to keep the monsters from interfering in their attempt to escape the island, the scientists finally use their perfected weather altering device on the island and the once tropical island becomes buried in snow and ice. As the scientists are saved by an American submarine, Godzilla and Minilla begin to hibernate as they wait for the island to become tropical again.

Destroy All Monsters

At the close of the 20th century (1999 in the dub), all of the Earth's kaiju have been collected by the United Nations Science Committee and confined in an area known as Monster Island, located in the Ogasawara island chain. A special control center is constructed underneath the island to ensure that the monsters stay secure and to serve as a research facility to study them.

When communications with Monster Island are suddenly and mysteriously severed, and all of the monsters begin attacking world capitals, Dr. Yoshida of the UNSC orders Captain Yamabe and the crew of his spaceship, Moonlight SY-3, to investigate Ogasawara. There, they discover that the scientists, led by Dr. Otani, have become mind-controlled slaves of a feminine alien race identifying themselves as the Kilaaks, who reveal that they are in control of the monsters. Their leader demands that the human race surrender, or face total annihilation.

Godzilla attacks New York City, Rodan invades Moscow, Mothra lays waste to Beijing, Gorosaurus destroys Paris (although Baragon was credited for its destruction), and Manda attacks London. These attacks were set in to motion to draw attention away from Japan, so that the aliens can establish an underground stronghold near Mount Fuji in Japan. The Kilaaks then turn their next major attack onto Tokyo and, without serious opposition, become arrogant in their aims until the UNSC discover, after recovering the Kilaaks' monster mind-control devices from around the world, that they have switched to broadcasting the control signals from their base under the Moon's surface. In a desperate battle, the crew of the SY-3 destroys the Kilaak's lunar outpost and returns the alien control system to Earth.

With all of the monsters under the control of the UNSC, the Kilaaks call King Ghidorah. The three-headed space dragon is dispatched to protect the alien stronghold at Mount Fuji, and battles Godzilla, Minilla, Mothra, Rodan, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, and Kumonga. While seemingly invincible, King Ghidorah is eventually overpowered by the combined strength of the Earth monsters and is killed. Refusing to admit defeat, the Kilaaks produce their ace, a burning monster they call the Fire Dragon, which begins to torch Tokyo and destroys the control center on Ogasawara. Suddenly, Godzilla attacks and destroys the Kilaaks' underground base, revealing that the Earth's monsters instinctively know who their enemies are. Captain Yamabe then pursues the Fire Dragon in the SY-3 and narrowly achieves victory for the human race. The Fire Dragon is revealed to be a flaming Kilaak saucer and is destroyed. With the Kilaaks defeated, Godzilla and the other monsters eventually return to Monster Island to live in peace.

Godzilla vs. Megalon

In the first part of 1971 (197X in the Japanese version), the second of series of underground nuclear tests was conducted, near the Aleutians, sending shockwaves as far as Monster Island in the South Pacific, severely damaging the island paradise and sending Anguirus plummeting into the depths of the Earth, with Godzilla narrowly escaping the fissure which his friends tumbled into.

For millions of years, Seatopia, an opulent undersea civilization that resides in vast cities reminiscent of those of Ancient Greece and Rome, has existed in relative peace, ruled by Emperor Antonio, but nuclear tests in recent years have severely affected the cities via the earthquakes the tests produced. With the Seatopian capital badly affected by the most recent test, the Seatopians plan to unleash their civilization's beetle-styled god, Megalon, to destroy the surface world out of vengeance.

On the surface, an inventor named Goro Ibuki, his little brother Rokuro, and Goro's friend Hiroshi Jinkawa are off on an outing near a lake when Seatopia makes itself known to the Earth by drying up the lake the trio was relaxing nearby and using it as a base of operation. As they return home they are ambushed by agents of Seatopia who are trying to steal Jet Jaguar, a humanoid robot under construction by the trio of inventors. However the agents' first attempt is botched and they are forced to flee to safety.

Some time later, Jet Jaguar is completed but the trio of inventors are knocked unconscious by the returning Seatopian agents. The agents' plan is to use Jet Jaguar to guide and direct Megalon to destroy whatever city Seatopia commands him to do. Goro and Rokuro are sent to be killed, while Hiroshi is taken hostage. Megalon is finally released to the surface while Jet Jaguar is put under the control of the Seatopians and is used to guide Megalon to attack Tokyo with the Japan Self Defense Forces failing to defeat the monster. Eventually, the trio of heroes manage to escape their situation with the Seatopians and reunite to devise a plan to send Jet Jaguar to get Godzilla's help using Jet Jaguar's secondary control system.

After uniting with Japan's Defense Force, Goro manages to regain control of Jet Jaguar and sends the robot to Monster Island to bring Godzilla to fight Megalon. Without a guide to control its actions, Megalon flails around relentlessly and aimlessly fighting with the Defense Force and destroying the outskirts of Tokyo. The Seatopians learn of Jet Jaguar's turn and thus send out a distress call to their allies, the Space Hunter Nebula M aliens (from the previous film) to send the alien monster Gigan to assist their allies.

As Godzilla journeys to fight Megalon, Jet Jaguar starts acting on its own and ignoring commands to the surprise of its inventors, and grows to gigantic proportions to face Megalon himself until Godzilla arrives. The battle is roughly at a standstill, until Gigan arrives and both Megalon and Gigan double team against Jet Jaguar. Godzilla finally arrives to assist Jet Jaguar and the odds become even. After a long and brutal fight, Gigan and Megalon both retreat and Godzilla and Jet Jaguar shake hands on a job well done. Jet Jaguar bids Godzilla farewell and Godzilla returns to its home on Monster Island. Jet Jaguar turns back to its human size, and returns home with Goro and Rokuro.

Godzilla vs. Biollante

In the aftermath of Godzilla's attack on Tokyo and later imprisonment at Mount Mihara in 1985, the monster's cells are secretly delivered to the Saradia Institute of Technology and Science, where they are to be merged with genetically modified plants in the hope of transforming Saradia's deserts into fertile land and ending the country's economic dependence on oil wells. Dr. Genshiro Shiragami and his daughter, Erika, are enlisted to aid with the project, but a terrorist bombing destroys the institute's laboratory, ruining the cells and killing Erika.

Five years later, Shiragami has returned to Japan and merged some of Erika's cells with those of a rose in an attempt to preserve her soul. Meanwhile, scientist Kazuhito Kirishima and Lieutenant Goro Gondo of the JSDF are using the Godzilla cells they collected to create "Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria" (ANEB), hoping it can serve as a weapon against Godzilla should it return. They attempt to recruit Shiragami to aid them, but are rebuffed. International tensions increase over the Godzilla cells, as they are coveted by both the Saradia Institute of Technology and Science and the American Bio-Major organization. An explosion from Mount Mihara causes tremors across the area, including Shiragami's home, badly damaging the roses. Shiragami agrees to join the JSDF's effort and is given access to the Godzilla cells, which he secretly merges with one of the roses. A night later, rival Bio-Major and Saradian agents break into Shiragami's lab, but are attacked by a large plant-like creature which later escapes to Lake Ashi and is named "Biollante" by Shiragami.

Bio-Major agents plant explosives around Mount Mihara and blackmail the Diet of Japan, warning the explosives will be detonated and thus free Godzilla if the cells are not handed over. Kirishima and Gondo attempt to trade, but Saradian agent SSS9 thwarts the attempt and escapes with the cells. The explosives are detonated, and Godzilla is released. Godzilla attempts to reach the nearest power plant to replenish its supply of nuclear energy, but Biollante calls out to Godzilla. Godzilla arrives at the lake to engage Biollante in a vicious battle, and emerges as the victor. Godzilla then proceeds toward the power plant at Tsuruga, but psychic Miki Saegusa uses her powers to divert it toward Osaka instead. The city is quickly evacuated before Godzilla makes landfall. A team led by Gondo meet Godzilla at the central district and fire rockets infused with the ANEB into its body. Gondo is killed in the process, and Godzilla leaves unharmed.

Kirishima recovers the cells and returns them to the JSDF. Shiragami theorizes that if Godzilla's body temperature is increased, the ANEB should work against him. The JSDF erects microwave-emitting plates during an artificial thunderstorm, hitting Godzilla with lightning and heating up its body temperature during a battle near the shores of Wakasa Bay. Godzilla is only moderately affected, but Biollante, having obtained a more powerful form, arrives to engage Godzilla in battle once again. After a long battle, the fight ends after Godzilla fires an atomic heat ray inside Biollante's mouth, severely injuring her. An exhausted Godzilla collapses on the beach as the bacterial infection finally takes hold, and Biollante splits apart into glowing spores which rise into the sky, forming an image of Erika among the stars. Shiragami, watching the scene, is shot by SSS9. Kirishima chases the assassin and, after a brief scuffle, SSS9 is killed by a microwave-emitting plate activated by Sho Kuroki. Godzilla reawakens and leaves for the ocean.

Terror of Mechagodzilla

Following the events of ''Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla'', Interpol agents search for Mechagodzilla's remains at the bottom of the Okinawan Sea in the hopes of gathering information on the robot's builders, the alien Simeons. However, their submarine is attacked by a giant, aquatic dinosaur called Titanosaurus and the crew vanishes.

Interpol launches an investigation into the incident. With the help of marine biologist Akira Ichinose, they trace Titanosaurus to a reclusive, mad scientist named Shinzô Mafune, who wants to destroy mankind. While the group is visiting the scientist's old home, they meet Mafune's daughter, Katsura, who claims her father is dead and that she burned his notes about Titanosaurus at his request. Unbeknownst to Interpol, the living Mafune is visited by Tsuda, aide to the Simeon leader Mugal, who is leading a project to rebuild Mechagodzilla. Mugal offers the Simeons' services to Mafune so that their respective monsters can wipe out mankind and allow them to rebuild the world for themselves.

Complicating matters, Ichinose falls in love with Katsura and unwittingly gives her Interpol's information on the Simeons, Mechagodzilla, and Titanosaurus. She is also revealed to be a cyborg, having undergone cybernetic surgery after she was nearly killed during one of her father's experiments as a child, and implanted with Mechagodzilla's control device. Additionally, an impatient Mafune releases Titanosaurus on Yokosuka without the aliens' permission. While Interpol discovers the dinosaur is vulnerable to supersonic waves, Katsura destroys their supersonic wave oscillator. However, Godzilla arrives and easily defeats Titanosaurus, causing the latter to retreat.

When Ichinose visits Katsura, the Simeons capture him and force him to watch as they unleash Mechagodzilla 2 and Titanosaurus on Tokyo while Interpol struggles to repair their wave oscillator and the Japanese armed forces struggle to fend off the monsters. Godzilla arrives, but is initially outmatched until Interpol distracts Titanosaurus with the repaired wave oscillator, allowing Godzilla to focus on Mechagodzilla 2. Interpol agents infiltrate the aliens' hideout, rescue Ichinose, and kill Mafune and many of the aliens. The remaining Simeons attempt to escape, but Godzilla shoots down their ships with its atomic breath. The wounded Katsura shoots herself to destroy Mechagodzilla 2's control device and dies in Ichinose's arms. With the robot non-functional, Godzilla tosses it into a chasm before blasting it with its atomic breath, causing it to explode and get buried. With help from Interpol, Godzilla then defeats Titanosaurus, who returns to the sea.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

In 1992, Godzilla is still weakened after being infected by the ANEB (Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria). Meanwhile, science fiction author Kenichiro Terasawa is writing a book about the monster and learns of a group of Japanese soldiers stationed on Lagos Island during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign. In February 1944, while threatened by American forces, the Japanese soldiers were saved by a mysterious dinosaur, which Terasawa theorizes was subsequently mutated into Godzilla in 1954 after a hydrogen bomb test on the island. Yasuaki Shindo, a wealthy businessman and army veteran who commanded the Lagos Garrison, confirms that the dinosaur did indeed exist.

Meanwhile, a UFO lands on Mount Fuji. When the JSDF investigates, they are greeted by Wilson, Grenchiko, Emmy Kano, and the android M-11. The visitors, known as the "Futurians", explain that they are from the year 2303, where Godzilla has completely destroyed Japan. The Futurians plan to travel back in time to 1944 and remove the dinosaur from Lagos Island before the island is irradiated, thus preventing the mutation of the creature into Godzilla. As proof of their story, Emmy presents a copy of Terasawa's book, which has not yet been completed in the present.

The Futurians, Terasawa, Miki Saegusa, and Professor Mazaki, board a time shuttle and travel back to 1944 to Lagos Island. There, as American forces land and engage the Japanese forces commanded by Shindo, the dinosaur attacks and kills the American soldiers. The U.S. Navy then bombs the dinosaur from the sea and gravely wounds it. After Shindo and his men leave the island, M-11 teleports the dinosaur from Lagos Island to the Bering Strait. Before returning to 1992, the Futurians secretly leave three small creatures called Dorats on Lagos Island, which are exposed to radiation from the hydrogen bomb test in 1954 and merge to become King Ghidorah. After returning to 1992, the Futurians use King Ghidorah to subjugate Japan and issue an ultimatum, but Japan refuses to surrender.

Feeling sympathy for the Japanese people, Emmy reveals to Terasawa the truth behind the Futurians' mission: in the future, Japan is an economic superpower that has surpassed the United States, Russia, and China. The Futurians traveled back in time in order to change history and prevent Japan's future economic dominance by creating King Ghidorah and using it to destroy present-day Japan. At the same time, they also planned to erase Godzilla from history so that it would not pose a threat to their plans. After M-11 brings Emmy back to the UFO, she reprograms the android so it will help her.

Shindo plans to send his nuclear submarine to the Bering Strait and irradiate the dinosaur in order to recreate Godzilla. However, Terasawa discovers too late that a Russian nuclear submarine sank there in the 1970s and released enough radiation to mutate the dinosaur into Godzilla. En route to the Bering Strait, Shindo's submarine is destroyed by Godzilla, who absorbs its radiation, recovers from the ANEB and becomes larger. Godzilla arrives in Japan and is met by King Ghidorah. They fight at equal strength, each immune to the other's attacks. With M-11 and Terasawa's aid, Emmy sabotages the UFO's control over King Ghidorah, causing the three-headed monster to lose focus during the battle. Godzilla eventually ends the battle by blasting off Ghidorah's middle head. Before sending King Ghidorah crashing into the ocean, Godzilla destroys the UFO, killing Wilson and Grenchiko. It then turns its attention to Tokyo, destroying the city and killing Shindo.

Emmy travels to the future with M-11 and returns to the present day with Mecha-King Ghidorah, a cybernetic version of King Ghidorah. The cybernetic Ghidorah blasts Godzilla with beams, which proves useless. Godzilla then counters by relentlessly blasting Ghidorah with its atomic breath before Ghidorah launches clamps to restrain Godzilla. Ghidorah carries Godzilla out of Japan, but Godzilla breaks from its restraints and causes Ghidorah to send both crashing into the ocean. Emmy then returns to the future, but not before informing Terasawa that she is his descendant.

At the bottom of the ocean, Godzilla awakens and roars over Mecha-King Ghidorah's remains before swimming away.

Godzilla vs. Mothra

In mid-1992, following the events of ''Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah'', a meteoroid crashes in the Ogasawara Trench and awakens Godzilla. Six months later, explorer Takuya Fujito is detained after stealing an ancient artifact. Later, a representative of the Japanese Prime Minister offers to have Takuya's charges dropped if he explores Infant Island with his ex-wife, Masako Tezuka and Kenji Ando, the secretary of the rapacious Marutomo company. After the trio arrives on the island, they find a cave containing a depiction of two giant insects in battle. Further exploration leads them to a giant egg and a pair of diminutive humanoids called the Cosmos, who identify the egg as belonging to Mothra.

The Cosmos tell of an ancient civilization that tried to control the Earth's climate 12,000 years ago, thus provoking the Earth into creating Battra. Battra, a male divine moth similar to Mothra, but much more fearsome in appearance, destroyed the civilisation and their weather-controlling device but then became uncontrollable, and started to harm the very planet that created him. Mothra was then sent by the Earth to fight Battra, who eventually lost. The Cosmos explain how the meteoroid uncovered Mothra's egg, and may have awoken Battra, who is still embittered over humanity's interference in the Earth's natural order.

The Marutomo company sends a freighter to Infant Island to pick up the egg, ostensibly to protect it. As they are sailing, Godzilla surfaces and heads toward the newly hatched Mothra larva. Battra, also as a larva, soon appears and joins the fight, allowing Mothra to retreat. The battle between Godzilla and Battra is eventually taken underwater, where the force of the battle causes a giant crack on the Philippine Sea Plate that swallows the two.

Masako and Takuya later discover Ando's true intentions when he kidnaps the Cosmos and takes them to Marutomo headquarters, where the CEO intends to use them for publicity purposes. Mothra enters Tokyo in an attempt to rescue the Cosmos, but is attacked by the JSDF. The wounded Mothra heads for the National Diet Building and starts constructing a cocoon around herself. Meanwhile, Godzilla surfaces from Mount Fuji, while Battra frees himself from the Earth's crust and continues towards Japan.

Both Mothra and Battra attain their imago forms and converge at Yokohama Cosmo World where they begin to fight once more. Godzilla interrupts the battle and attacks Mothra, but Battra comes to her aid and briefly incapacitates Godzilla. Regrouping, the two moths decide to join forces against Godzilla, determining him to be the greater threat to the planet. Eventually, Mothra and Battra overwhelm Godzilla and carry it over the ocean. Godzilla bites Battra's neck and fires its atomic breath into the wound, killing him. A tired Mothra drops Godzilla and the lifeless Battra into the water below, sealing Godzilla below the surface by creating a mystical glyph with scales from her wings. The next morning, the Cosmos explain that Battra had been waiting many years to destroy an even larger asteroid that would threaten the Earth in 1999. Mothra had promised she would stop the future collision if Battra were to die, and she and the Cosmos leave Earth as the humans bid farewell.

Godzilla (1954 film)

When the Japanese freighter ''Eiko-maru'' is destroyed near Odo Island, another ship—the ''Bingo-maru''—is sent to investigate, only to meet the same fate with few survivors. A fishing boat from Odo is also destroyed, with one survivor. Fishing catches mysteriously drop to zero, blamed by an elder on the ancient sea creature known as "Godzilla". Reporters arrive on Odo Island to further investigate. A villager tells one of the reporters that something in the sea is ruining the fishing. That evening, a storm strikes the island, destroying the reporters' helicopter, and Godzilla, briefly seen, destroys 17 homes and kills nine people and 20 of the villagers' livestock.

Odo residents travel to Tokyo to demand disaster relief. The villagers' and reporters' evidence describes damage consistent with something large crushing the village. The government sends paleontologist Kyohei Yamane to lead an investigation on the island, where giant radioactive footprints and a trilobite are discovered. The village alarm bell is rung and Yamane and the villagers rush to see the monster, retreating after seeing that it is a giant dinosaur. Yamane presents his findings in Tokyo, estimating that Godzilla is 50 m tall and is evolved from an ancient sea creature becoming a terrestrial creature. He concludes that Godzilla has been disturbed by underwater hydrogen bomb testing. Debate ensues about notifying the public about the danger of the monster. Meanwhile, 17 ships are lost at sea.

Ten frigates are dispatched to attempt to kill the monster using depth charges. The mission disappoints Yamane, who wants Godzilla to be studied. When Godzilla survives the attack, officials appeal to Yamane for ideas to kill the monster, but Yamane tells them that Godzilla is unkillable, having survived H-bomb testing, and must be studied. Yamane's daughter, Emiko, decides to break off her arranged engagement to Yamane's colleague, Daisuke Serizawa, because of her love for Hideto Ogata, a salvage ship captain. When a reporter arrives and asks to interview Serizawa, Emiko escorts the reporter to Serizawa's home. After Serizawa refuses to divulge his current work to the reporter, he gives Emiko a demonstration of his recent project on the condition that she must keep it a secret. The demonstration horrifies her and she leaves without mentioning the engagement. Shortly after she returns home, Godzilla surfaces from Tokyo Bay and attacks Shinagawa. After attacking a passing train, Godzilla returns to the ocean.

After consulting international experts, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces construct a 30 m tall and 50,000 volt electrified fence along the coast and deploy forces to stop and kill Godzilla. Dismayed that there is no plan to study Godzilla for its resistance to radiation, Yamane returns home, where Emiko and Ogata await, hoping to get his consent for them to wed. When Ogata disagrees with Yamane, arguing that the threat that Godzilla poses outweighs any potential benefits from studying the monster, Yamane tells him to leave. Godzilla resurfaces and breaks through the fence to Tokyo with its atomic breath, unleashing more destruction across the city. Further attempts to kill the monster with tanks and fighter jets fail and Godzilla returns to the ocean. The day after, hospitals and shelters are crowded with the maimed and the dead, with some survivors suffering from radiation sickness.

Distraught by the devastation, Emiko tells Ogata about Serizawa's research, a weapon called the "Oxygen Destroyer", which disintegrates oxygen atoms and causes organisms to die of a rotting asphyxiation. Emiko and Ogata go to Serizawa to convince him to use the Oxygen Destroyer but he initially refuses, explaining that if he uses the device, the superpowers of the world will surely force him to construct more Oxygen Destroyers for use as a superweapon. After watching a program displaying the nation's current tragedy, Serizawa finally accepts their pleas. As Serizawa burns his notes, Emiko breaks down crying.

A navy ship takes Ogata and Serizawa to plant the device in Tokyo Bay. After finding Godzilla, Serizawa unloads the device and cuts off his air support, taking the secret of the Oxygen Destroyer to his grave. Godzilla is destroyed, but many mourn Serizawa's death. Yamane believes that if nuclear weapons testing continues, another Godzilla may rise in the future.

The Return of Godzilla

The Japanese fishing vessel ''Yahata-Maru'' is caught in strong currents off the shores of Daikoku Island. As the boat drifts into shore, the island begins to erupt, and a giant monster lifts itself out of the volcano. A few days later, reporter Goro Maki is sailing in the area and finds the vessel intact but deserted. As he explores the vessel, he finds all the crew dead except for Hiroshi Okumura, who has been badly wounded. Suddenly a giant ''Shockirus'' sea louse attacks him but he is saved by Okumura.

In Tokyo, Okumura realizes by looking at pictures that the monster he saw was a new Godzilla. Maki writes an article about the account, but the news of Godzilla's return is kept secret and his article is withheld. Maki visits Professor Hayashida, whose parents were lost in the 1954 Godzilla attack. Hayashida describes Godzilla as a living, invincible nuclear weapon able to cause mass destruction. At Hayashida's laboratory, Maki meets Okumura's sister, Naoko, and informs her that her brother is alive and at the police hospital.

A Soviet submarine is destroyed in the Pacific. The Soviets believe the attack was perpetrated by the Americans, and a diplomatic crisis ensues, which threatens to escalate into nuclear war. The Japanese intervene and reveal that Godzilla was behind the attacks. The Japanese cabinet meets to discuss Japan's defense. A new weapon is revealed, the Super X, a specially-armored flying fortress that will defend the capital. The Japanese military is put on alert.

Godzilla attacks the Ihama nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture. While feeding off the reactor, he is distracted by a flock of birds and leaves the facility. Hayashida believes that Godzilla was distracted instinctively by a homing signal from the birds. Hayashida, together with geologist Minami, propose to the Japanese Cabinet, that Godzilla could be lured back to Mount Mihara on Ōshima Island by a similar signal, and a volcanic eruption could be started, capturing Godzilla.

Prime Minister Mitamura meets with Soviet and American envoys and declares that nuclear weapons will not be used on Godzilla, even if he were to attack the Japanese mainland. Meanwhile, the Soviets have their own plans to counter the threat posed by Godzilla, and a Soviet control ship disguised as a freighter in Tokyo Harbor prepares to launch a nuclear missile from one of their orbiting satellites should Godzilla attack.

Godzilla is sighted at dawn in Tokyo Bay heading towards Tokyo, causing mass evacuations. The JASDF attacks Godzilla but fails to stop his advance on the city. Godzilla soon emerges and makes short work of the JSDF stationed there. The battle causes damage to the Soviet ship and starts a missile launch countdown. The captain dies as he attempts to stop the missile from launching. Godzilla proceeds towards Shinjuku, wreaking havoc along the way. Godzilla is confronted by four laser-armed trucks and the Super X. Because Godzilla's heart is similar to a nuclear reactor, the cadmium shells that are fired into his mouth by the Super X seal and slow down his heart, knocking Godzilla unconscious.

The countdown ends and the Soviet missile is launched, but it is destroyed by an American counter-missile. Hayashida and Okumura are extracted from Tokyo via helicopter and taken to Mt. Mihara to set up the homing device before the two missiles collide above Tokyo. The destruction of the nuclear missile produces an electrical storm and an EMP, which revives Godzilla once more and temporarily disables the Super X.

An enraged Godzilla bears down on the Super X just as it manages to get airborne again. The Super X's weapons prove ineffective against the kaiju, resulting in even more destruction in the city as Godzilla chases it through several skyscrapers. Godzilla finally destroys the Super X by dropping a skyscraper on top of it and continues his rampage, until Hayashida uses the homing device to distract him. Godzilla leaves Tokyo and swims across Tokyo Bay, following the homing device to Mount Mihara. There, Godzilla follows the device and falls into the mouth of the volcano. Okumura activates detonators at the volcano, creating a controlled eruption that traps Godzilla inside.

Gaudy Night

Harriet Vane returns with trepidation to her ''alma mater'', Shrewsbury College, Oxford to attend the Gaudy dinner. Expecting hostility because of her notoriety (she had stood trial for murder in an earlier novel, ''Strong Poison)'', she is surprised to be welcomed warmly by the dons, and rediscovers her old love of the academic life. Harriet's short stay is, however, marred by her discovery of a sheet of paper with an offensive drawing, and a poison pen message referring to her as a "dirty murderess".

Some time later the Dean of Shrewsbury writes to ask for her help. There has been an outbreak of vandalism and anonymous letters, and fearing for the college's reputation if this becomes public knowledge, the Dean wants someone to investigate confidentially. Harriet, herself a victim of poison-pen letters since her trial, reluctantly agrees, and returns to spend some months in residence, ostensibly to do research on Sheridan Le Fanu and to assist a don with her book. The timing of the first poison pen message during the gaudy, and the use of a Latin quotation from the ''Aeneid'' during one disturbance, focuses suspicion on the Senior Common Room dons, causing escalating tensions.

As Harriet wrestles with the case, trying to narrow down the list of suspects who might be responsible for poison-pen messages, obscene graffiti, wanton vandalism including the destruction of a set of scholarly proofs, and the crafting of vile effigies, she is forced to examine her ambivalent feelings about Wimsey, about love and marriage, and about her attraction to academia as an intellectual and emotional refuge. Wimsey eventually arrives in Oxford to help, and she gains a new perspective from those who know him, including his nephew, an undergraduate at the university.

The attacks build to a crisis. There is an attempt to drive a vulnerable student to suicide and a physical assault on Harriet that almost kills her. The perpetrator is finally unmasked as Annie Wilson, one of the college scouts, revealed to be the widow of a disgraced University of York academic. Her husband's academic fraud had been exposed by an examiner, destroying his career and driving him to suicide; his suicide note used the Latin quote eventually used by Wilson. The examiner later moved to Shrewsbury College, and the widow's campaign has been her revenge against the examiner in particular and more generally against intellectual women who move outside what she sees as their proper domestic sphere.

At the end of the book, with Wimsey admitting his own faults in his attempts at courtship and having come to terms with her own feelings, Harriet finally accepts Wimsey's proposal of marriage.

A Song of Ice and Fire

''A Song of Ice and Fire'' takes place in a fictional world in which seasons last for years and end unpredictably. Nearly three centuries before the events of the first novel, the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros were united under the Targaryen dynasty, establishing military supremacy through their control of dragons. The Targaryens ruled for three hundred years, continuing past the extinction of the dragons. Their dynasty eventually ended with a rebellion led by Lord Robert Baratheon, in which Aerys "the Mad King" Targaryen was killed and Robert proclaimed king of the Seven Kingdoms. At the beginning of ''A Game of Thrones'', 15 years have passed since Robert's rebellion, with a nine-year-long summer coming to an end.

The principal story chronicles the power struggle for the Iron Throne among the great Houses of Westeros following the death of King Robert in ''A Game of Thrones''. Robert's heir apparent, the 13-year-old Joffrey, is immediately proclaimed king through the machinations of his mother, Queen Cersei Lannister. When Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark, Robert's closest friend and chief advisor, discovers that Joffrey and his siblings are the product of incest between Cersei and her twin brother Ser Jaime Lannister, Eddard attempts to unseat Joffrey, but is betrayed and executed for treason. In response, Robert's brothers Stannis and Renly both lay separate claims to the throne. During this period of instability, two of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros attempt to become independent from the Iron Throne: Eddard's eldest son Robb is proclaimed King in the North, while Lord Balon Greyjoy desires to recover the sovereignty of his region, the Iron Islands. The so-called "War of the Five Kings" is in full progress by the middle of the second book, ''A Clash of Kings''.

The second part of the story takes place in the far north of Westeros, where an 8,000-year-old wall of ice, simply called "the Wall", defends the Seven Kingdoms from supernatural creatures known as the Others. The Wall's sentinels, the Sworn Brotherhood of the Night's Watch, also protect the realm from the incursions of the "wildlings" or "Free Folk", who are several human tribes living on the north side of the Wall. The Night's Watch story is told primarily through the point of view of Jon Snow, Lord Eddard Stark's bastard son. Jon follows the footsteps of his uncle Benjen Stark and joins the Watch at a young age, rising quickly through the ranks. He eventually becomes Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. In the third volume, ''A Storm of Swords'', the Night's Watch storyline becomes increasingly entangled with the War of the Five Kings.

The third storyline follows Daenerys Targaryen, daughter of Aerys II, the last Targaryen king. On the continent of Essos, east of Westeros across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys is married off by her elder brother Viserys Targaryen to a powerful warlord, but slowly becomes an independent and intelligent ruler in her own right. Her rise to power is aided by the historic birth of three dragons, hatched from eggs given to her as wedding gifts. The three dragons soon become not only a symbol of her bloodline and her claim to the throne, but also devastating weapons of war, which help her in the conquest of Slaver's Bay. The story follows her year-long conflict with the region's city states, in which she aims to consolidate power, disrupt the Essosi slave trade, and gather support for her ambitions to reclaim Westeros.

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

In the distant future, Mankind has colonized space, with clusters of space colonies at each of the five Earth-Moon Lagrange points. Down on the Earth, the nations have come together to form the United Earth Sphere Alliance. This Alliance oppresses the colonies with its vast military might. The colonies wishing to be free, join together in a movement headed by the pacifist Heero Yuy. In the year After Colony 175, Yuy is shot dead by an assassin, forcing the colonies to search for other paths to peace. The assassination prompts five disaffected scientists from the Organization of the Zodiac, more commonly referred to as OZ, to turn rogue upon the completion of the mobile suit prototype Tallgeese.

The story of ''Gundam Wing'' begins in the year After Colony 195, with the start of "Operation Meteor": the scientists' plan for revenge against OZ. The operation involves five teenage boys, who have each been chosen and trained by each of the five scientists, then sent to Earth independently in extremely advanced mobile suits (one designed by each of the scientists) known as "Gundams" (called such because they are constructed from a rare and astonishingly durable material called Gundanium alloy, which can only be created in outer space). Each Gundam is sent from a different colony, and the pilots are initially unaware of each other's existence.

The series focuses primarily on the five Gundam pilots: Heero Yuy (an alias, not to be confused with the martyred pacifist), Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner and Chang Wufei. Their mission is to use their Gundams to attack OZ directly, in order to rid the Alliance of its weapons and free the colonies from its oppressive rule. The series also focuses on Relena Peacecraft, heir to the pacifist Sanc Kingdom, who becomes an important political ally to the Gundam pilots (particularly Heero) over the course of the series.

God Emperor of Dune

Leto II Atreides, the God Emperor, has ruled the universe as a tyrant for 3,500 years after becoming a hybrid of human and giant sandworm in ''Children of Dune''. The death of all other sandworms as a result of the terraforming of Dune, and his control of the remaining supply of the all-important drug melange, has allowed him to keep civilization under his complete command. Leto has been physically transformed into a worm, retaining only his human face and arms, and though he is now seemingly immortal and invulnerable to harm, he is prone to instinct-driven bouts of violence when provoked to anger. As a result, his rule is one of religious awe and despotic fear.

Leto has disbanded the Landsraad to all but a few Great Houses; the remaining powers defer to his authority, although they individually conspire against him in secret. The Fremen have long since lost their identity and military power, and have been replaced as the Imperial army by the Fish Speakers, an all-female army who obey Leto without question. He has rendered the human population into a state of trans-galactic stagnation; space travel is non-existent to most people in his Empire, which he has deliberately kept to a near-medieval level of technological sophistication. All of this he has done in accordance with a prophecy divined through precognition that will establish an enforced peace preventing humanity from destroying itself through aggressive behavior.

The desert planet Arrakis has been terraformed into a lush forested biosphere, except for a single section of desert retained by Leto for his Citadel. A string of Duncan Idaho gholas have served Leto over the millennia, and Leto has also fostered the bloodline of his twin sister Ghanima. Her descendant Moneo is Leto's majordomo and closest confidante, while Moneo's daughter Siona has become the leader of an Arrakis-based rebellion against Leto. She steals a set of secret records from his archives, not realizing that he has allowed it. Leto intends to breed Siona with the latest Duncan ghola, but is aware that the ghola, moved by his own morality, may try to assassinate him before this can occur.

The Ixians send a new ambassador named Hwi Noree to serve Leto, and though he realizes that she has been specifically designed and trained to ensnare him, he cannot resist falling in love with her. She agrees to marry him. Leto tests Siona by taking her out to the middle of the desert. After improperly using her stillsuit to preserve moisture, dehydration forces her to accept Leto's offer of spice essence from his body to replenish her. Awakened to Leto's prophecy, which he calls the Golden Path, Siona is convinced of the importance of it. She remains dedicated to Leto's destruction, and an errant rainstorm demonstrates for her his mortal vulnerability to water.

When Idaho falls in love and copulates with Hwi, Moneo sends him and Siona out to Tuono Village, an outcropping along the Royal Procession road, to keep them safe from Leto's wrath. Leto changes the venue of his wedding from Tabur Village to Tuono Village. Siona and Idaho overcome a searing mutual hatred of each other to plan an assassination. As Leto's wedding procession moves across a high bridge over a river, Siona's associate Nayla destroys the support beams with a lasgun. The bridge collapses and Leto's entourage, including Hwi, plunge to their deaths into the river below. Leto's body rends apart in the water; the sandtrout which are part of his body encyst the water and scurry off, while the worm portion burns and disintegrates on the shore.

With his dying breaths, Leto reveals a secret portion of the Golden Path: the production of a human who is invisible to prescient vision. Having begun millennia before with the union of Leto's twin sister Ghanima and Farad'n of House Corrino, Siona is the finished result, and she and her descendants will retain this ability. He explains that humanity is now free from the domination of oracles, free to scatter throughout the universe, never again to face complete domination or complete destruction. After revealing the location of his secret spice hoard, Leto dies, leaving Duncan and Siona to face the task of managing the empire.

The Ixians have also begun the construction of navigation computers that will render the Spacing Guild's Navigators obsolete. Leto's death causes the Scattering, a great forced exodus of the former Imperium citizens to other galaxies and planets.

Gone with the Wind (novel)

### Part I

''Gone with the Wind'' takes place in the state of Georgia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877). The novel opens on the eve of a rebellion in which seven southern states – including Georgia – declared their secession from the United States (the "Union") over a desire to continue the institution of slavery, which was the economic engine of the South. The story begins on April 15, 1861, on a plantation owned by the family of wealthy Irish immigrant Gerald O'Hara. The oldest of the three O'Hara daughters, 16-year-old Scarlett is willful, witty, and intelligent though uninterested in schooling. She is described in the book's opening sentence as "not beautiful" but in possession of a powerful ability to charm and attract men.Part 1, chapter 1

Scarlett is dismayed to learn that the man for whom she harbors a secret love, her county neighbor Ashley Wilkes, is set to announce his engagement to his cousin Melanie Hamilton. The next day, the Wilkeses throw an all-day party at their estate ("Twelve Oaks") where Scarlett spies a dark stranger leering at her. She learns that this man is Rhett Butler and that he has a reputation for seducing young women. Throughout the day, Scarlett attempts to turn Ashley's head by flirting shamelessly with every man present, including Melanie's brother Charles. In the afternoon Scarlett finally gets Ashley alone and confesses her love for him, convinced he will return it, but he says only that he cares for her as a friend and intends to marry Melanie. Stung, Scarlett reacts badly, pelting Ashley with insults about himself and Melanie and accusing him of being too cowardly to submit to his real feelings for her. As Ashley departs, Rhett Butler reveals himself from his hiding place in the library he has overheard their whole exchange. A humiliated Scarlett claims that he is "not a gentleman", to which he admiringly replies "And you are not a lady".Part 1, chapter 6

Scarlett later learns that war has been declared and the men are going to enlist. Feeling petty and vengeful, she accepts a marriage proposal from Melanie's brother, Charles Hamilton. They marry two weeks later, Charles goes to war, and promptly dies of measles two months later. Scarlett gives birth to his child, Wade Hampton Hamilton.Part 1, chapter 7 As a widow, she is bound to dye her dresses black, wear a veil in public, and avoid conversations with young men. Scarlett mourns the loss of her youth, though not the husband she barely knew, and rues her hasty decision to marry Charles.

### Part II

Melanie is living in Atlanta with her Aunt Sarah Jane, who is largely called by her childhood nickname "Pittypat". Scarlett's mother, mistaking Scarlett's depression at having lost her status as a belle for grief at having lost her husband, suggests that living with Melanie and Pittypat in Atlanta might lift her spirits. After moving to Atlanta, Scarlett's spirit is revived by the energy and excitement of living in a growing city. She busies herself with hospital work and sewing circles for the Confederate Army, although her heart isn't in it she does these things mostly to avoid being gossiped about by the other women of Atlanta society. Additionally, she believes that her efforts may aid Ashley, with whom she is still deeply in love.

Scarlett is mortified when she runs into Rhett Butler, whom she hasn't seen since her humiliation at Twelve Oaks, while manning a sales stall at a public dance benefiting the troops. Rhett believes the war is a lost cause but is becoming rich as a blockade runner for profit. Rhett sees through Scarlett's "lady in mourning" disguise and recognizes her longing to dance with the other young people, so he bids a large amount of gold to win the honor of leading the first dance and chooses Scarlett as his partner. Scarlett scandalizes the city by dancing joyfully while still dressed in widow's mourning. Her reputation is saved by intervention from Melanie, who is now her sister-in-law and highly respected in Atlanta. Melanie argues that Scarlett is supporting the Confederate cause. Scarlett continues to act recklessly, flirting and going on dates while still in widow's clothes, but is continually protected by Melanie's endorsement. She spends much of her time with Rhett Butler. Rhett's sexual attraction to Scarlett is ever-present, and at one point he enrages her with a silky proposition she become his mistress. Still, she appreciates Rhett for his money, his sophistication, and their shared irritation with the hypocrisy of Atlanta society.Part 2, chapter 9

At Christmas (1863), Ashley is granted a furlough from the army and visits the women in Atlanta. Scarlett struggles to restrain her feelings for him and to remember that he is someone else's husband. She remains convinced that he is secretly in love with her and that he remains married to Melanie out of duty. Scarlett is heartbroken when Melanie becomes pregnant with Ashley's child.

### Part III

The war is going badly for the Confederacy. By September 1864, Atlanta is besieged from three sides.Part 3, chapter 17 The city becomes desperate as hundreds of wounded Confederate soldiers pour in. Melanie goes into labor with only the inexperienced Scarlett and a young slave named Prissy to assist, as all the trained doctors are attending to the soldiers. The tattered Confederate States Army sets flame to Atlanta before they abandon it to the Union Army. Amidst the chaos, Melanie gives birth to a boy, Beau.

Scarlett tracks down Rhett and begs him to take her, Wade, Melanie, Beau, and Prissy to Tara. Rhett laughs at this idea, explaining that Tara has likely been burned by the Yankees, but still steals an emaciated horse and a small wagon and begins driving the party out of Atlanta. At the edge of the city, Rhett announces that he has had a change of heart and is abandoning Scarlett to join the army in their final, doomed push. Scarlett drives the wagon to Tara, where she is relieved to see that Tara has avoided being burned like so many of her neighbors' homes. However, the situation is bleak: Scarlett's mother is dead, her father has lost his mind with grief, her sisters are sick with typhoid fever, the field slaves have left, the Yankees have burned all the cotton, and there is no food in the house.

The long and tiring struggle for survival begins, with Scarlett working in the fields. There are several hungry people and animals, along with an ever-present threat from Yankees who steal or burn what little they can find. At one point, Scarlett kills a Yankee soldier who attempts to invade her home and buries his body in the garden. A long post-war succession of Confederate soldiers returning home stop at Tara to find food and rest. Eventually, Ashley returns from the war, with his idealistic view of the world shattered. Finding themselves alone one day, he and Scarlett share a passionate kiss in the fields, after which he declares that he can't trust himself with her and that he intends to move his family to New York to get away from her.

### Part IV

Life at Tara slowly begins to recover, but exorbitant taxes are levied on the plantation. Scarlett knows only one man with enough money to help her Rhett Butler. She puts on her only pretty dress, looks for him in Atlanta, and finds him in a debtor's prison. Although she nearly wins him over with a southern belle routine, he declines to help when he realizes her sweetness is an act meant to get at his money. Leaving the jailhouse in a snit, Scarlett meets Frank Kennedy, a middle-aged Atlanta storeowner who is betrothed to Scarlett's sister, Suellen. Realizing that Frank also has money and that Suellen will turn her back on Tara once she is married, Scarlett hatches a plot to marry Frank. She lies to Frank that Suellen has changed her mind about marrying him. Dazed, Frank succumbs to Scarlett's charms and marries her two weeks later, knowing he has done "something romantic and exciting for the first time in his life".Part 4, chapter 35 Wanting to keep his pretty young wife happy, Frank gives Scarlett the money to pay the taxes.

While Frank has a cold and is pampered by Aunt Pittypat, Scarlett goes over the accounts at Frank's store and finds that many owe him money. Terrified of the possibility of more taxes and irritated with Frank's poor business sense, she takes control of the store; her business practices emasculate Frank and leave many Atlantans resentful of her. With a loan from Rhett, she also buys and runs a small sawmill, which is viewed as even more scandalous conduct. To Frank's relief and Scarlett's dismay, Scarlett learns she is pregnant, which curtails her business activities for a while. She convinces Ashley to come to Atlanta and manage her mill, all the while still in love with him. At Melanie's urging and with great trepidation, Ashley accepts. Melanie becomes the center of Atlanta society, and Scarlett gives birth to a girl, Ella Lorena.Part 4, chapter 42

Georgia is under martial law, and life has taken on a new and more frightening tone. For protection, Scarlett keeps Frank's pistol tucked in the upholstery of his buggy. Her lone trips to and from the mill take her past a shanty town where criminals live. While on her way home one evening, she is accosted by two men who try to rob her, but she escapes with the help of Big Sam, a black former foreman from Tara. Attempting to avenge his wife, Frank and the Ku Klux Klan raid the shanty town, where Frank is shot dead in the fracas. Rhett puts on a charade to keep the raiders from being arrested. He enters the Wilkeses' home with Hugh Elsing and Ashley, singing and pretending to be drunk. Yankee officers outside question Rhett and he says he and the other men had been at Belle Watling's brothel that evening, a story Belle later confirms to the officers. The men are indebted to Rhett, and his reputation among them improves somewhat, but the men's wives except Melanie are livid at owing their husbands' lives to the town madame. Later, at Frank's funeral, Rhett asks Scarlett to marry him.Part 4, chapter 47 She refuses at first, but after a little repartee, he kisses her passionately, and in the heat of the moment, she accepts. One year later, Scarlett and Rhett announce their engagement, which becomes the talk of the town.

### Part V

Mr. and Mrs. Butler honeymoon in New Orleans, spending lavishly. Upon returning to Atlanta, the couple builds a gaudy new mansion on Peachtree Street. Rhett happily pays for the house to be built to Scarlett's specifications, but describes it as an "architectural horror".Part 5, chapter 50 Shortly after moving into the house, the sardonic jabs between them turn into quarrels. Scarlett wonders why Rhett married her and then, "with real hate in her eyes", tells Rhett she is going to have a baby, which she does not want. Wade is seven years old in 1869 when his half-sister Eugenie Victoria, is born. She has blue eyes like Gerald O'Hara, and Melanie nicknames her "Bonnie Blue" in reference to the Bonnie Blue Flag of the Confederacy. When Scarlett is feeling well again, she makes a trip to the mill and talks to Ashley, who is alone in the office. In their conversation, she comes away believing Ashley still loves her and is jealous of her intimate relations with Rhett. She returns home and tells Rhett she does not want more children. From then on, they sleep separately, and when Bonnie is two years old, she sleeps in a little bed beside Rhett. Rhett turns his attention completely toward Bonnie, pampering her and working to ensure her a good reputation for when she enters society.

Melanie plans a surprise birthday party for Ashley. Scarlett goes to the mill to stall him there until the celebration – a rare opportunity to be alone together. He tells her how pretty she looks, and they reminisce about the old days and how far their lives have departed from what they imagined for themselves. They share an innocent embrace but are spotted in the moment by Ashley's sister, India. Before the party has even begun, a rumor of an affair between Ashley and Scarlett explodes across Atlanta, eventually reaching Rhett and Melanie. Melanie refuses to accept any criticism of Scarlett, and India is expelled from the Wilkes home. Rhett, drunker than Scarlett has ever seen him, returns home from the party long after Scarlett. His eyes are bloodshot, and his mood is dark and violent. He enjoins Scarlett to drink with him, but she declines with deliberate rudeness. Rhett pins her to the wall and tells her they could have been happy together. He then takes her in his arms and carries her to her bedroom, where they engage in an intercourse. The next morning, a chagrined Rhett leaves town with Bonnie and Prissy for three months. Scarlett is uncertain about her feelings surrounding Rhett, for whom she feels a mixture of desire and revulsion, and she learns she is pregnant with her fourth child.

When Rhett returns, Scarlett is strangely happy for his return. Rhett comments on her paleness, and Scarlett tells him that she is pregnant. Rhett sarcastically asks if the father is Ashley; Scarlett calls him a cad and says that no woman would want his baby, to which he replies, "Cheer up, maybe you'll have a miscarriage."Part 5, chapter 56 She lunges at him, but misses and tumbles down the stairs. She is seriously ill for the first time in her life, having lost the baby and broken her ribs. Rhett is wildly remorseful and fears Scarlett will die. Sobbing and drunk, he seeks consolation from Melanie and confesses that he acted horribly out of jealousy about Ashley. Scarlett goes to Tara with Wade and Ella, seeking to regain her strength and vitality from "the green cotton fields of home".Part 5, chapter 57 When she returns healthy to Atlanta, she sells the mills to Ashley. Bonnie is four years old in 1873. Spirited and willful, she has her father wrapped around her finger, and Atlanta society is charmed by Rhett's transformation from scandalous playboy to doting father. Rhett buys Bonnie a Shetland pony, teaching her to ride sidesaddle and paying a trainer to teach the pony to jump. One day, Bonnie asks her father to raise the bar to one-and-a-half feet. He gives in, warning her not to come crying if she falls. During the jump, Bonnie falls and dies of a broken neck.

In the dark days and months following Bonnie's death, Rhett is often drunk and disheveled, while Scarlett, though equally bereaved, is more presentable. Melanie miraculously conceives a second child, but loses the baby and soon dies due to complications. As she comforts the newly widowed Ashley, Scarlett finally realizes that she stopped loving him long ago and that perhaps she never did. She is shocked to realize that she has always, sincerely, deeply loved Rhett Butler and that he has loved her in return. She returns home, brimming with her new love, and determined to begin anew with him. She discovers him packing his bags. In the wake of Melanie's death, Rhett has decided that he wants to rediscover the calm Southern dignity he once knew in his youth and is leaving Atlanta to find it. Scarlett tries to persuade Rhett to either stay or take her with him, but Rhett explains that while he once loved Scarlett deeply, the years of hurt and neglect have killed that love. He leaves and doesn't look back. In the midst of her grief, Scarlett consoles herself with the knowledge that she still has Tara. She plans to return there with the certainty that she can recover and win Rhett back, because "tomorrow is another day."Part 5, chapter 63

Galaxy Quest

The cast of an old 1980s space-adventure television series, ''Galaxy Quest'', spend most of their days attending fan conventions and making promotional appearances. Though the series' conceited former star, Jason Nesmith, thrives on the attention, the other cast members—Gwen, Alexander, Fred, and Tommy—resent him and, to varying degrees, the states of their careers.

At a convention, Jason is approached by a group calling themselves Thermians, led by Mathesar, who request his help. Jason thinks they want him for a promotional appearance and agrees. The next morning, when the Thermians pick him up, Jason is hung over and does not grasp that the Thermians are aliens and that he has been transported to a working re-creation of the bridge of the NSEA ''Protector'', the starship from ''Galaxy Quest.'' Believing he is on a set and must perform in character, he confronts the Thermians' enemy, the evil warlord Sarris, who demands the "Omega 13", a secret superweapon mentioned in the final scene of the series, which has never been used and whose capabilities are unknown. Giving perfunctory orders, Jason manages to temporarily defeat Sarris.

After the grateful Thermians transport him back to Earth, Jason realizes the experience was real. He attempts to convince the other cast members, but is rebuffed. When the Thermian Laliari appears and requests Jason's help again, the cast, thinking it is a job, join him, including their handler Guy, who played an ill-fated redshirt in one episode of the series. Aboard the ''Protector'', the cast learns that the ingenuous Thermians believe episodes of ''Galaxy Quest'' are true "historical documents." Inspired by the crew's adventures, they have based their society on the virtues espoused by the show and manufactured a functioning replica of the ''Protector.''

Sarris returns and attacks the ''Protector'' again, and the ship barely escapes through a magnetic minefield; however, the ship's power source, a beryllium sphere, is severely damaged. The humans must travel to the surface of a nearby planet for a new sphere, which they snatch from ferocious, childlike aliens. When the humans return to the ''Protector'', they discover that Sarris has seized the ship and demands the "Omega 13" device. Jason confesses that he is not the commander and shows Sarris the ''Galaxy Quest'' "historical documents". Sarris understands they are just actors and forces Jason to explain to a disillusioned Mathesar.

Sarris activates the ''Protector'''s self-destruct mechanism and returns to his ship, leaving the Thermians and the cast members to die. The humans formulate a plan to abort the self-destruct and defeat Sarris' remaining troops on the ship. Jason communicates with Brandon, a ''Galaxy Quest'' superfan on Earth, and his network of friends with intimate knowledge of the show. They talk Jason and Gwen through the ship's core and help them abort the self-destruct sequence. Meanwhile, Alexander leads the Thermians against Sarris' forces and they take back control of the ''Protector''. With renewed confidence, the crew challenges Sarris and draws his ship into the magnetic minefield. This time, the ''Protector'' drags the magnetic mines into Sarris’ vessel, destroying it.

The ''Protector'' approaches Earth to bring the humans home, but Sarris, who escaped his ship's destruction, ambushes them on the bridge and fatally wounds several crew members. Jason manages to activate the "Omega 13", which creates a 13-second time warp to the past, giving Jason and Mathesar a chance to disarm Sarris before he repeats his attack.

The ''Protector'''s bridge separates from the main vessel to land the humans on Earth, while the main section of the ship carries Mathesar and the remaining Thermians into interstellar space. Guided by Brandon and his friends acting as beacons, the ''Protector'' bridge crashes into a ''Galaxy Quest'' convention, coming to a stop on the main stage. The dazed cast emerges to the cheers of their fans, but Sarris reemerges to imperil them again. Jason shoots and destroys Sarris, and the ecstatic crowd assumes it was all a massive display of special effects. The cast basks in the adoration of Brandon, his pals, and their fans.

Some time later, ''Galaxy Quest'' is revived as a sequel series, ''Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues'', with the cast reprising their roles alongside Guy and Laliari as new cast members.

Glen or Glenda

''Glen or Glenda'' begins with a narrator, called The Scientist (Bela Lugosi), making cryptic comments about humanity. He first comments that humanity's constant search for the unknown results in startling things coming to light. The cries of a newborn baby are followed by the sirens of an ambulance. One is a sign that a new life has begun, the other that a life has ended.Craig (2009), p. 30-68

This last comment starts the narrative of the film. The life which has ended is that of a transvestite named Patrick/Patricia, who has committed suicide. A suicide note explains the reasons behind the suicide. Patrick/Patricia had been arrested four times for cross-dressing in public, and had spent time in prison, so he ended his own life and wished to be buried with his women's clothing. "''Let my body rest in death forever, in the things I cannot wear in life.''"

Inspector Warren is puzzled and wants to know more about cross-dressing, so he seeks the office of Dr. Alton, who narrates for him the story of Glen/Glenda. Glen is shown studying women's clothes in a shop window. A flashback scene reveals that a young Glen started out by asking to wear his sister's dress for a Halloween party.

The narrative explains that Glen is a transvestite, but not a homosexual. He hides his cross-dressing from his fiancée, Barbara, fearing that she will reject him. She voices her suspicion that there is another woman in his life, unaware that the woman is his feminine alter ego, Glenda. The scene shifts from a speechless Glen to footage of a stampeding herd of bison, while the Scientist calls for Glen to ''"Pull the string. Dance to that for which one is made!''", referring to the narrator pulling the strings of a hapless puppet who is not in control of his own destiny.

Alton narrates that Glen is torn between the idea of being honest with Barbara before their wedding or waiting until after. The narrative shifts briefly from Glen's story to how society reacts to sex change operations. A conversation between two "average joes", concludes that society should be more "lenient" when it comes to people with tranvestite tendencies. The story returns to Glen, who confides in a transvestite friend of his, John, whose wife left him after catching him wearing her clothes.

Later, Glen/Glenda is walking the city streets at night. He returns home when the sound of thunder causes him to collapse to the floor; an extended dream sequence begins. Barbara is depicted trapped under a tree. Glenda fails to lift the tree, then is replaced by Glen, who completes the task with ease. The dream then depicts Glen and Barbara getting married, where the best man is a devil. The sequence continues with a series of erotic vignettes containing BDSM, striptease, lesbian, autoerotic, and rape fantasy themes. Throughout these vignettes, the faces of Glen and the Scientist appear, silently reacting to the various images.

The dream returns to Glen in the midst of a jury of public opinion. A blackboard appears, with messages recording what the Scientist or the mocking voices said in previous scenes. The Devil and the various specters on the jury menacingly approach Glen. Then the Devil departs, Glen turns into Glenda, and the specters retreat. A victorious Glenda sees Barbara and approaches her, but she turns into a mocking Devil. Barbara starts appearing and disappearing, always evading Glenda's embrace. The dream sequence ends.

Glen/Glenda wakes and stares at his mirror reflection. He decides to tell Barbara the truth. She initially reacts with distress, but ultimately decides to stay with him. She offers him an angora sweater as a sign of acceptance. The scene effectively concludes their story.

Back in Dr. Alton's office, he starts another narrative. This one concerns another tranvestite, called Alan/Anne. Anne was born Alan, a boy, but her mother wanted a girl and raised her as such. Her father did not care either way. She was an outsider as a child, trying to be one of the girls and consequently rejected by schoolmates of both sexes. As a teenager, she self-identified as a woman. She was conscripted in World War II, maintaining a secret life throughout her military service. She first heard of sex change operations during the War while recovering from combat wounds in a hospital. She eventually did have a sex change operation, enduring the associated pains to fulfill her dreams. The World War II veteran becomes a "lovely young lady". Following a brief epilogue, the film ends.

Gunpowder Plot

The conspirators' principal aim was to kill King James, but many other important targets would also be present at the State Opening, including the monarch's nearest relatives and members of the Privy Council. The senior judges of the English legal system, most of the Protestant aristocracy, and the bishops of the Church of England would all have attended in their capacity as members of the House of Lords, along with the members of the House of Commons. Another important objective was the kidnapping of the King's daughter, Elizabeth. Housed at Coombe Abbey near Coventry, she lived only ten miles north of Warwick—convenient for the plotters, most of whom lived in the Midlands. Once the King and his Parliament were dead, the plotters intended to install Elizabeth on the English throne as a titular Queen. The fate of her brothers, Henry and Charles, would be improvised; their role in state ceremonies was, as yet, uncertain. The plotters planned to use Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, as Elizabeth's regent, but most likely never informed him of this.

### Initial recruitment

Robert Catesby (1573–1605), a man of "ancient, historic and distinguished lineage", was the inspiration behind the plot. He was described by contemporaries as "a good-looking man, about six feet tall, athletic and a good swordsman". Along with several other conspirators, he took part in the Essex Rebellion in 1601, during which he was wounded and captured. Queen Elizabeth allowed him to escape with his life after fining him 4,000 marks (equivalent to more than £6 million in 2008), after which he sold his estate in Chastleton. In 1603 Catesby helped to organise a mission to the new king of Spain, Philip III, urging Philip to launch an invasion attempt on England, which they assured him would be well supported, particularly by the English Catholics. Thomas Wintour (1571–1606) was chosen as the emissary, but the Spanish king, although sympathetic to the plight of Catholics in England, was intent on making peace with James. Wintour had also attempted to convince the Spanish envoy Don Juan de Tassis that "3,000 Catholics" were ready and waiting to support such an invasion. Concern was voiced by Pope Clement VIII that using violence to achieve a restoration of Catholic power in England would result in the destruction of those that remained.

According to contemporary accounts, in February 1604 Catesby invited Thomas Wintour to his house in Lambeth, where they discussed Catesby's plan to re-establish Catholicism in England by blowing up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament. Wintour was known as a competent scholar, able to speak several languages, and he had fought with the English army in the Netherlands. His uncle, Francis Ingleby, had been executed for being a Catholic priest in 1586, and Wintour later converted to Catholicism. Also present at the meeting was John Wright, a devout Catholic said to be one of the best swordsmen of his day, and a man who had taken part with Catesby in the Earl of Essex's rebellion three years earlier. Despite his reservations over the possible repercussions should the attempt fail, Wintour agreed to join the conspiracy, perhaps persuaded by Catesby's rhetoric: "Let us give the attempt and where it faileth, pass no further."

Wintour travelled to Flanders to enquire about Spanish support. While there he sought out Guy Fawkes (1570–1606), a committed Catholic who had served as a soldier in the Southern Netherlands under the command of William Stanley, and who in 1603 was recommended for a captaincy. Accompanied by John Wright's brother Christopher, Fawkes had also been a member of the 1603 delegation to the Spanish court pleading for an invasion of England. Wintour told Fawkes that " ", and that certain gentlemen " ". The two men returned to England late in April 1604, telling Catesby that Spanish support was unlikely. Thomas Percy, Catesby's friend and John Wright's brother-in-law, was introduced to the plot several weeks later. Percy had found employment with his kinsman the Earl of Northumberland, and by 1596 was his agent for the family's northern estates. About 1600–1601 he served with his patron in the Low Countries. At some point during Northumberland's command in the Low Countries, Percy became his agent in his communications with James. Percy was reputedly a "serious" character who had converted to the Catholic faith. His early years were, according to a Catholic source, marked by a tendency to rely on "his sword and personal courage". Northumberland, although not a Catholic himself, planned to build a strong relationship with James I in order to better the prospects of English Catholics, and to reduce the family disgrace caused by his separation from his wife Martha Wright, a favourite of Elizabeth I. Thomas Percy's meetings with James seemed to go well. Percy returned with promises of support for the Catholics, and Northumberland believed that James would go so far as to allow Mass in private houses, so as not to cause public offence. Percy, keen to improve his standing, went further, claiming that the future King would guarantee the safety of English Catholics.

### Initial planning

The first meeting between the five conspirators took place on 20 May 1604, probably at the Duck and Drake Inn, just off the Strand, Thomas Wintour's usual residence when staying in London. Catesby, Thomas Wintour, and John Wright were in attendance, joined by Guy Fawkes and Thomas Percy. Alone in a private room, the five plotters swore an oath of secrecy on a prayer book. By coincidence, and ignorant of the plot, Father John Gerard (a friend of Catesby's) was celebrating Mass in another room, and the five men subsequently received the Eucharist.

### Further recruitment

Following their oath, the plotters left London and returned to their homes. The adjournment of Parliament gave them, they thought, until February 1605 to finalise their plans. On 9 June, Percy's patron, the Earl of Northumberland, appointed him to the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, a mounted troop of 50 bodyguards to the King. This role gave Percy reason to seek a base in London, and a small property near the Prince's Chamber owned by Henry Ferrers, a tenant of John Whynniard, was chosen. Percy arranged for the use of the house through Northumberland's agents, Dudley Carleton and John Hippisley. Fawkes, using the pseudonym "John Johnson", took charge of the building, posing as Percy's servant. The building was occupied by Scottish commissioners appointed by the King to consider his plans for the unification of England and Scotland, so the plotters hired Catesby's lodgings in Lambeth, on the opposite bank of the Thames, from where their stored gunpowder and other supplies could be conveniently rowed across each night. Meanwhile, King James continued with his policies against the Catholics, and Parliament pushed through anti-Catholic legislation, until its adjournment on 7 July.

The conspirators returned to London in October 1604, when Robert Keyes, a "desperate man, ruined and indebted", was admitted to the group. His responsibility was to take charge of Catesby's house in Lambeth, where the gunpowder and other supplies were to be stored. Keyes's family had notable connections; his wife's employer was the Catholic Lord Mordaunt. Tall, with a red beard, he was seen as trustworthy and, like Fawkes, capable of looking after himself. In December Catesby recruited his servant, Thomas Bates, into the plot, after the latter accidentally became aware of it.

It was announced on 24 December that the re-opening of Parliament would be delayed. Concern over the plague meant that rather than sitting in February, as the plotters had originally planned for, Parliament would not sit again until 3 October 1605. The contemporaneous account of the prosecution claimed that during this delay the conspirators were digging a tunnel beneath Parliament. This may have been a government fabrication, as no evidence for the existence of a tunnel was presented by the prosecution, and no trace of one has ever been found. The account of a tunnel comes directly from Thomas Wintour's confession, and Guy Fawkes did not admit the existence of such a scheme until his fifth interrogation. Logistically, digging a tunnel would have proved extremely difficult, especially as none of the conspirators had any experience of mining. If the story is true, by 6 December the Scottish commissioners had finished their work, and the conspirators were busy tunnelling from their rented house to the House of Lords. They ceased their efforts when, during tunnelling, they heard a noise from above. The noise turned out to be the then-tenant's widow, who was clearing out the undercroft directly beneath the House of Lords—the room where the plotters eventually stored the gunpowder.

By the time the plotters reconvened at the start of the old style new year on Lady Day, 25 March, three more had been admitted to their ranks; Robert Wintour, John Grant, and Christopher Wright. The additions of Wintour and Wright were obvious choices. Along with a small fortune, Robert Wintour inherited Huddington Court (a known refuge for priests) near Worcester, and was reputedly a generous and well-liked man. A devout Catholic, he married Gertrude, the daughter of John Talbot of Grafton, from a prominent Worcestershire family of recusants. Christopher Wright (1568–1605), John's brother, had also taken part in the Earl of Essex's revolt and had moved his family to Twigmore in Lincolnshire, then known as something of a haven for priests. John Grant was married to Wintour's sister, Dorothy, and was lord of the manor of Norbrook near Stratford-upon-Avon. Reputed to be an intelligent, thoughtful man, he sheltered Catholics at his home at Snitterfield, and was another who had been involved in the Essex revolt of 1601.

### Undercroft

In addition, 25 March was the day on which the plotters purchased the lease to the undercroft they had supposedly tunnelled near to, owned by John Whynniard. The Palace of Westminster in the early 17th century was a warren of buildings clustered around the medieval chambers, chapels, and halls of the former royal palace that housed both Parliament and the various royal law courts. The old palace was easily accessible; merchants, lawyers, and others lived and worked in the lodgings, shops and taverns within its precincts. Whynniard's building was along a right-angle to the House of Lords, alongside a passageway called Parliament Place, which itself led to Parliament Stairs and the River Thames. Undercrofts were common features at the time, used to house a variety of materials including food and firewood. Whynniard's undercroft, on the ground floor, was directly beneath the first-floor House of Lords, and may once have been part of the palace's medieval kitchen. Unused and filthy, its location was ideal for what the group planned to do.

In the second week of June Catesby met in London the principal Jesuit in England, Father Henry Garnet, and asked him about the morality of entering into an undertaking which might involve the destruction of the innocent, together with the guilty. Garnet answered that such actions could often be excused, but according to his own account later admonished Catesby during a second meeting in July in Essex, showing him a letter from the pope which forbade rebellion. Soon after, the Jesuit priest Oswald Tesimond told Garnet he had taken Catesby's confession, in the course of which he had learnt of the plot. Garnet and Catesby met for a third time on 24 July 1605, at the house of the wealthy catholic Anne Vaux in Enfield Chase. Garnet decided that Tesimond's account had been given under the seal of the confessional, and that canon law therefore forbade him to repeat what he had heard. Without acknowledging that he was aware of the precise nature of the plot, Garnet attempted to dissuade Catesby from his course, to no avail. Garnet wrote to a colleague in Rome, Claudio Acquaviva, expressing his concerns about open rebellion in England. He also told Acquaviva that "there is a risk that some private endeavour may commit treason or use force against the King", and urged the pope to issue a public brief against the use of force.

According to Fawkes, 20 barrels of gunpowder were brought in at first, followed by 16 more on 20 July. The supply of gunpowder was theoretically controlled by the government, but it was easily obtained from illicit sources. On 28 July, the ever-present threat of the plague again delayed the opening of Parliament, this time until Tuesday 5 November. Fawkes left the country for a short time. The King, meanwhile, spent much of the summer away from the city, hunting. He stayed wherever was convenient, including on occasion at the houses of prominent Catholics. Garnet, convinced that the threat of an uprising had receded, travelled the country on a pilgrimage.

It is uncertain when Fawkes returned to England, but he was back in London by late August, when he and Wintour discovered that the gunpowder stored in the undercroft had decayed. More gunpowder was brought into the room, along with firewood to conceal it. The final three conspirators were recruited in late 1605. At Michaelmas, Catesby persuaded the staunchly Catholic Ambrose Rookwood to rent Clopton House near Stratford-upon-Avon. Rookwood was a young man with recusant connections, whose stable of horses at Coldham Hall in Stanningfield, Suffolk was an important factor in his enlistment. His parents, Robert Rookwood and Dorothea Drury, were wealthy landowners, and had educated their son at a Jesuit school near Calais. Everard Digby was a young man who was generally well liked, and lived at Gayhurst House in Buckinghamshire. He had been knighted by the King in April 1603, and was converted to Catholicism by Gerard. Digby and his wife, Mary Mulshaw, had accompanied the priest on his pilgrimage, and the two men were reportedly close friends. Digby was asked by Catesby to rent Coughton Court near Alcester. Digby also promised £1,500 after Percy failed to pay the rent due for the properties he had taken in Westminster. Finally, on 14 October Catesby invited Francis Tresham into the conspiracy. Tresham was the son of the Catholic Thomas Tresham, and a cousin to Robert Catesby—the two had been raised together. He was also the heir to his father's large fortune, which had been depleted by recusant fines, expensive tastes, and by Francis and Catesby's involvement in the Essex revolt.

Catesby and Tresham met at the home of Tresham's brother-in-law and cousin, Lord Stourton. In his confession, Tresham claimed that he had asked Catesby if the plot would damn their souls, to which Catesby had replied it would not, and that the plight of England's Catholics required that it be done. Catesby also apparently asked for £2,000, and the use of Rushton Hall in Northamptonshire. Tresham declined both offers (although he did give £100 to Thomas Wintour), and told his interrogators that he had moved his family from Rushton to London in advance of the plot; hardly the actions of a guilty man, he claimed.

### Monteagle letter

The details of the plot were finalised in October, in a series of taverns across London and Daventry. Fawkes would be left to light the fuse and then escape across the Thames, while simultaneously a revolt in the Midlands would help to ensure the capture of the King's daughter, Elizabeth. Fawkes would leave for the continent, to explain events in England to the European Catholic powers.

The wives of those involved and Anne Vaux (a friend of Garnet who often shielded priests at her home) became increasingly concerned by what they suspected was about to happen. Several of the conspirators expressed worries about the safety of fellow Catholics who would be present in Parliament on the day of the planned explosion. Percy was concerned for his patron, Northumberland, and the young Earl of Arundel's name was brought up; Catesby suggested that a minor wound might keep him from the chamber on that day. The Lords Vaux, Montagu, Monteagle, and Stourton were also mentioned. Keyes suggested warning Lord Mordaunt, his wife's employer, to derision from Catesby.

On Saturday 26 October, Monteagle (Tresham's brother-in-law) arranged a meal in a long-disused house at Hoxton. Suddenly a servant appeared saying he had been handed a letter for Lord Monteagle from a stranger in the road. Monteagle ordered it to be read aloud to the company. "By this prearranged manoeuvre Francis Tresham sought at the same time to prevent the Plot and forewarn his friends" (H Trevor-Roper).

My Lord, out of the love I bear to some of your friends, I have a care of your preservation. Therefore I would advise you, as you tender your life, to devise some excuse to shift your attendance at this parliament; for God and man hath concurred to punish the wickedness of this time. And think not slightly of this advertisement, but retire yourself into your country where you may expect the event in safety. For though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament; and yet they shall not see who hurts them. This counsel is not to be condemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm; for the danger is passed as soon as you have burnt the letter. And I hope God will give you the grace to make good use of it, to whose holy protection I commend you.

Uncertain of the letter's meaning, Monteagle promptly rode to Whitehall and handed it to Cecil (then Earl of Salisbury). Salisbury informed the Earl of Worcester, considered to have recusant sympathies, and the suspected Catholic Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton, but kept news of the plot from the King, who was busy hunting in Cambridgeshire and not expected back for several days. Monteagle's servant, Thomas Ward, had family connections with the Wright brothers, and sent a message to Catesby about the betrayal. Catesby, who had been due to go hunting with the King, suspected that Tresham was responsible for the letter, and with Thomas Wintour confronted the recently recruited conspirator. Tresham managed to convince the pair that he had not written the letter, but urged them to abandon the plot. Salisbury was already aware of certain stirrings before he received the letter, but did not yet know the exact nature of the plot, or who exactly was involved. He therefore elected to wait, to see how events unfolded.

### Discovery

The letter was shown to the King on Friday 1 November following his arrival back in London. Upon reading it, James immediately seized upon the word "blow" and felt that it hinted at "some strategem of fire and powder", perhaps an explosion exceeding in violence the one that killed his father, Lord Darnley, at Kirk o' Field in 1567. Keen not to seem too intriguing, and wanting to allow the King to take the credit for unveiling the conspiracy, Salisbury feigned ignorance. The following day members of the Privy Council visited the King at the Palace of Whitehall and informed him that, based on the information that Salisbury had given them a week earlier, on Monday the Lord Chamberlain Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk would undertake a search of the Houses of Parliament, "both above and below". On Sunday 3 November Percy, Catesby and Wintour had a final meeting, where Percy told his colleagues that they should "abide the uttermost triall", and reminded them of their ship waiting at anchor on the Thames. By 4 November Digby was ensconced with a "hunting party" at Dunchurch, ready to abduct Elizabeth. The same day, Percy visited the Earl of Northumberland—who was uninvolved in the conspiracy—to see if he could discern what rumours surrounded the letter to Monteagle. Percy returned to London and assured Wintour, John Wright, and Robert Keyes that they had nothing to be concerned about, and returned to his lodgings on Gray's Inn Road. That same evening Catesby, likely accompanied by John Wright and Bates, set off for the Midlands. Fawkes visited Keyes, and was given a pocket watch left by Percy, to time the fuse, and an hour later Rookwood received several engraved swords from a local cutler.

Although two accounts of the number of searches and their timing exist, according to the King's version, the first search of the buildings in and around Parliament was made on Monday 4 November—as the plotters were busy making their final preparations—by Suffolk, Monteagle, and John Whynniard. They found a large pile of firewood in the undercroft beneath the House of Lords, accompanied by what they presumed to be a serving man (Fawkes), who told them that the firewood belonged to his master, Thomas Percy. They left to report their findings, at which time Fawkes also left the building. The mention of Percy's name aroused further suspicion as he was already known to the authorities as a Catholic agitator. The King insisted that a more thorough search be undertaken. Late that night, the search party, headed by Thomas Knyvet, returned to the undercroft. They again found Fawkes, dressed in a cloak and hat, and wearing boots and spurs. He was arrested, whereupon he gave his name as John Johnson. He was carrying a lantern now held in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and a search of his person revealed a pocket watch, several slow matches and touchwood. 36 barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of faggots and coal. Fawkes was taken to the King early on the morning of 5 November.

### Flight

As news of "John Johnson's" arrest spread among the plotters still in London, most fled northwest, along Watling Street. Christopher Wright and Thomas Percy left together. Rookwood left soon after, and managed to cover 30 miles in two hours on one horse. He overtook Keyes, who had set off earlier, then Wright and Percy at Little Brickhill, before catching Catesby, John Wright, and Bates on the same road. Reunited, the group continued northwest to Dunchurch, using horses provided by Digby. Keyes went to Mordaunt's house at Drayton. Meanwhile, Thomas Wintour stayed in London, and even went to Westminster to see what was happening. When he realised the plot had been uncovered, he took his horse and made for his sister's house at Norbrook, before continuing to Huddington Court.

The group of six conspirators stopped at Ashby St Ledgers at about 6 pm, where they met Robert Wintour and updated him on their situation. They then continued on to Dunchurch, and met with Digby. Catesby convinced him that despite the plot's failure, an armed struggle was still a real possibility. He announced to Digby's "hunting party" that the King and Salisbury were dead, before the fugitives moved west to Warwick.

In London, news of the plot was spreading, and the authorities set extra guards on the city gates, closed the ports, and protected the house of the Spanish Ambassador, which was surrounded by an angry mob. An arrest warrant was issued against Thomas Percy, and his patron, the Earl of Northumberland, was placed under house arrest. In "John Johnson's" initial interrogation he revealed nothing other than the name of his mother, and that he was from Yorkshire. A letter to Guy Fawkes was discovered on his person, but he claimed that name was one of his aliases. Far from denying his intentions, "Johnson" stated that it had been his purpose to destroy the King and Parliament. Nevertheless, he maintained his composure and insisted that he had acted alone. His unwillingness to yield so impressed the King that he described him as possessing "a Roman resolution".

### Investigation

On 6 November, the Lord Chief Justice, Sir John Popham (a man with a deep-seated hatred of Catholics) questioned Rookwood's servants. By the evening he had learned the names of several of those involved in the conspiracy: Catesby, Rookwood, Keyes, Wynter , John and Christopher Wright, and Grant. "Johnson" meanwhile persisted with his story, and along with the gunpowder he was found with, was moved to the Tower of London, where the King had decided that "Johnson" would be tortured. The use of torture was forbidden, except by royal prerogative or a body such as the Privy Council or Star Chamber. In a letter of 6 November James wrote: "The gentler tortours [tortures] are to be first used unto him, ''et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur'' [and thus by steps extended to the bottom depths], and so God speed your good work." "Johnson" may have been placed in manacles and hung from the wall, but he was almost certainly subjected to the horrors of the rack. On 7 November his resolve was broken; he confessed late that day, and again over the following two days.

### Last stand

On 6 November, with Fawkes maintaining his silence, the fugitives raided Warwick Castle for supplies, then continued to Norbrook to collect weapons. From there they continued their journey to Huddington. Bates left the group and travelled to Coughton Court to deliver a letter from Catesby, to Father Garnet and the other priests, informing them of what had transpired, and asking for their help in raising an army. Garnet replied by begging Catesby and his followers to stop their "wicked actions", before himself fleeing. Several priests set out for Warwick, worried about the fate of their colleagues. They were caught, and then imprisoned in London. Catesby and the others arrived at Huddington early in the afternoon, and were met by Thomas Wintour. They received practically no support or sympathy from those they met, including family members, who were terrified at the prospect of being associated with treason. They continued on to Holbeche House on the border of Staffordshire, the home of Stephen Littleton, a member of their ever-decreasing band of followers. Whilst there Stephen Littleton and Thomas Wintour went to 'Pepperhill', the Shropshire residence at Boningale of John Talbot, Robert Wintour's father-in-law, to gain support but to no avail. Tired and desperate, they spread out some of the now-soaked gunpowder in front of the fire, to dry out. Although gunpowder does not explode unless physically contained, a spark from the fire landed on the powder and the resultant flames engulfed Catesby, Rookwood, Grant, and a man named Morgan (a member of the hunting party).

Thomas Wintour and Littleton, on their way from Huddington to Holbeche House, were told by a messenger that Catesby had died. At that point, Littleton left, but Thomas arrived at the house to find Catesby alive, albeit scorched. John Grant was not so lucky, and had been blinded by the fire. Digby, Robert Wintour and his half-brother John, and Thomas Bates, had all left. Of the plotters, only the singed figures of Catesby and Grant, and the Wright brothers, Rookwood, and Percy, remained. The fugitives resolved to stay in the house and wait for the arrival of the King's men.

Richard Walsh (Sheriff of Worcestershire) and his company of 200 men besieged Holbeche House on the morning of 8 November. Thomas Wintour was hit in the shoulder while crossing the courtyard. John Wright was shot, followed by his brother, and then Rookwood. Catesby and Percy were reportedly killed by a single lucky shot. The attackers rushed the property, and stripped the dead or dying defenders of their clothing. Grant, Morgan, Rookwood, and Wintour were arrested.

Harold and Maude

Harold Chasen is a 19-year-old man obsessed with death. He stages elaborate fake suicides, attends funerals (usually for people that he doesn't know), and drives a hearse, all to the chagrin of his self-obsessed, wealthy socialite mother. His mother sends Harold to a psychoanalyst, sets him up with blind dates, and buys him a luxury car, all schemes he subverts in his own way.

Harold meets 79-year-old Maude one day while at a random stranger's funeral Mass, and discovers that they share a hobby. Harold is entranced by Maude's quirky outlook on life, which is bright and delightfully carefree in contrast with his moribund demeanor. Maude lives in a decommissioned railroad car and thinks nothing of breaking the law; she is quite skilled at stealing cars and will swiftly uproot an ailing tree on public property to re-plant it in the forest. She and Harold form a bond and Maude shows Harold the pleasures of art and music (including how to play banjo), and teaches him how to make "the most of his time on earth." Meanwhile, Harold's mother is determined, against Harold's wishes, to find him a wife. One by one, Harold frightens and horrifies each of his appointed computer dates, by appearing to commit gruesome acts: self-immolation, self-mutilation, and seppuku. His mother tries enlisting him in the military by sending Harold to his uncle, who lost an arm serving under General MacArthur in the Second World War, but Harold deters the recruitment by staging a scene where Maude poses as a pacifist protester and Harold seemingly murders her out of militarist fanaticism.

As Harold and Maude grow closer, their friendship blossoms into a romance. Holding her hand, Harold discovers a number tattooed on her forearm, indicating Maude survived the Nazi death camps. Harold announces that he will marry Maude, resulting in disgusted outbursts from his family, analyst, and priest. Unbeknownst to Harold, Maude has been planning to commit suicide on her eightieth birthday. Maude's birthday arrives, and Harold throws a surprise party for her. As the pair dance, Maude tells Harold that she "couldn't imagine a lovelier farewell." When Maude reveals that she has taken an overdose of sleeping pills, and will be dead by midnight, Harold rushes Maude to the hospital. After learning of Maude's death, Harold is shown speeding down a country road, and sending the car off a seaside cliff. After the crash, the final shot reveals Harold standing calmly atop the cliff, holding his banjo and wearing colorful clothing for the first time in the film. After gazing down at the wreckage, he dances away to "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out".

Hamlet

### Act I

The protagonist of ''Hamlet'' is Prince Hamlet of Denmark, son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, and nephew of King Claudius, his father's brother and successor. Claudius hastily married King Hamlet's widow, Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, and took the throne for himself. Denmark has a long-standing feud with neighbouring Norway, in which King Hamlet slew King Fortinbras of Norway in a battle some years ago. Although Denmark defeated Norway and the Norwegian throne fell to King Fortinbras's infirm brother, Denmark fears that an invasion led by the dead Norwegian king's son, Prince Fortinbras, is imminent.

On a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle, the sentries Bernardo and Marcellus discuss a ghost resembling the late King Hamlet which they have recently seen, and bring Prince Hamlet's friend Horatio as a witness. After the ghost appears again, the three vow to tell Prince Hamlet what they have witnessed.

As the court gathers the next day, while King Claudius and Queen Gertrude discuss affairs of state with their elderly adviser Polonius, Hamlet looks on glumly. During the court, Claudius grants permission for Polonius's son Laertes to return to school in France and sends envoys to inform the King of Norway about Fortinbras. Claudius also scolds Hamlet for continuing to grieve over his father and forbids him to return to his schooling in Wittenberg. After the court exits, Hamlet despairs of his father's death and his mother's hasty remarriage. Learning of the ghost from Horatio, Hamlet resolves to see it himself.

, 1789) As Polonius's son Laertes prepares to depart for France, Polonius offers him advice that culminates in the maxim "to thine own self be true." Polonius's daughter, Ophelia, admits her interest in Hamlet, but Laertes warns her against seeking the prince's attention, and Polonius orders her to reject his advances. That night on the rampart, the ghost appears to Hamlet, telling the prince that he was murdered by Claudius and demanding that Hamlet avenge him. Hamlet agrees, and the ghost vanishes. The prince confides to Horatio and the sentries that from now on he plans to "put an antic disposition on", or act as though he has gone mad, and forces them to swear to keep his plans for revenge secret; however, he remains uncertain of the ghost's reliability.

### Act II

Soon thereafter, Ophelia rushes to her father, telling him that Hamlet arrived at her door the prior night half-undressed and behaving erratically. Polonius blames love for Hamlet's madness and resolves to inform Claudius and Gertrude. As he enters to do so, the king and queen finish welcoming Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two student acquaintances of Hamlet, to Elsinore. The royal couple has requested that the students investigate the cause of Hamlet's mood and behaviour. Additional news requires that Polonius wait to be heard: messengers from Norway inform Claudius that the king of Norway has rebuked Prince Fortinbras for attempting to re-fight his father's battles. The forces that Fortinbras had conscripted to march against Denmark will instead be sent against Poland, though they will pass through Danish territory to get there.

Polonius tells Claudius and Gertrude his theory regarding Hamlet's behaviour and speaks to Hamlet in a hall of the castle to try to uncover more information. Hamlet feigns madness and subtly insults Polonius all the while. When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, Hamlet greets his "friends" warmly but quickly discerns that they are spies. Hamlet admits that he is upset at his situation but refuses to give the true reason, instead commenting on "What a piece of work is a man". Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell Hamlet that they have brought along a troupe of actors that they met while travelling to Elsinore. Hamlet, after welcoming the actors and dismissing his friends-turned-spies, asks them to deliver a soliloquy about the death of King Priam and Queen Hecuba at the climax of the Trojan War. Impressed by their delivery of the speech, he plots to stage ''The Murder of Gonzago'', a play featuring a death in the style of his father's murder and to determine the truth of the ghost's story, as well as Claudius's guilt or innocence, by studying Claudius's reaction.

### Act III

Polonius forces Ophelia to return Hamlet's love letters and tokens of affection to the prince while he and Claudius watch from afar to evaluate Hamlet's reaction. Hamlet is walking alone in the hall as the King and Polonius await Ophelia's entrance, musing whether "to be or not to be". When Ophelia enters and tries to return Hamlet's things, Hamlet accuses her of immodesty and cries "get thee to a nunnery", though it is unclear whether this, too, is a show of madness or genuine distress. His reaction convinces Claudius that Hamlet is not mad for love. Shortly thereafter, the court assembles to watch the play Hamlet has commissioned. After seeing the Player King murdered by his rival pouring poison in his ear, Claudius abruptly rises and runs from the room; for Hamlet, this is proof positive of his uncle's guilt.

Gertrude summons Hamlet to her chamber to demand an explanation. Meanwhile, Claudius talks to himself about the impossibility of repenting, since he still has possession of his ill-gotten goods: his brother's crown and wife. He sinks to his knees. Hamlet, on his way to visit his mother, sneaks up behind him but does not kill him, reasoning that killing Claudius while he is praying will send him straight to heaven while his father's ghost is stuck in purgatory. In the queen's bedchamber, Hamlet and Gertrude fight bitterly. Polonius, spying on the conversation from behind a tapestry, calls for help as Gertrude, believing Hamlet wants to kill her, calls out for help herself.

Hamlet, believing it is Claudius, stabs wildly, killing Polonius, but he pulls aside the curtain and sees his mistake. In a rage, Hamlet brutally insults his mother for her apparent ignorance of Claudius's villainy, but the ghost enters and reprimands Hamlet for his inaction and harsh words. Unable to see or hear the ghost herself, Gertrude takes Hamlet's conversation with it as further evidence of madness. After begging the queen to stop sleeping with Claudius, Hamlet leaves, dragging Polonius's corpse away.

### Act IV

Hamlet jokes with Claudius about where he has hidden Polonius's body, and the king, fearing for his life, sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to accompany Hamlet to England with a sealed letter to the English king requesting that Hamlet be executed immediately.

Unhinged by grief at Polonius's death, Ophelia wanders Elsinore. Laertes arrives back from France, enraged by his father's death and his sister's madness. Claudius convinces Laertes that Hamlet is solely responsible, but a letter soon arrives indicating that Hamlet has returned to Denmark, foiling Claudius's plan. Claudius switches tactics, proposing a fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet to settle their differences. Laertes will be given a poison-tipped foil, and, if that fails, Claudius will offer Hamlet poisoned wine as a congratulation. Gertrude interrupts to report that Ophelia has drowned, though it is unclear whether it was suicide or an accident caused by her madness.

, 1839)

### Act V

Horatio has received a letter from Hamlet, explaining that the prince escaped by negotiating with pirates who attempted to attack his England-bound ship, and the friends reunite offstage. Two gravediggers discuss Ophelia's apparent suicide while digging her grave. Hamlet arrives with Horatio and banters with one of the gravediggers, who unearths the skull of a jester from Hamlet's childhood, Yorick. Hamlet picks up the skull, saying "alas, poor Yorick" as he contemplates mortality. Ophelia's funeral procession approaches, led by Laertes. Hamlet and Horatio initially hide, but when Hamlet realizes that Ophelia is the one being buried, he reveals himself, proclaiming his love for her. Laertes and Hamlet fight by Ophelia's graveside, but the brawl is broken up.

Back at Elsinore, Hamlet explains to Horatio that he had discovered Claudius's letter with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's belongings and replaced it with a forged copy indicating that his former friends should be killed instead. A foppish courtier, Osric, interrupts the conversation to deliver the fencing challenge to Hamlet. Hamlet, despite Horatio's pleas, accepts it. Hamlet does well at first, leading the match by two hits to none, and Gertrude raises a toast to him using the poisoned glass of wine Claudius had set aside for Hamlet. Claudius tries to stop her but is too late: she drinks, and Laertes realizes the plot will be revealed. Laertes slashes Hamlet with his poisoned blade. In the ensuing scuffle, they switch weapons, and Hamlet wounds Laertes with his own poisoned sword. Gertrude collapses and, claiming she has been poisoned, dies. In his dying moments, Laertes reconciles with Hamlet and reveals Claudius's plan. Hamlet rushes at Claudius and kills him. As the poison takes effect, Hamlet, hearing that Fortinbras is marching through the area, names the Norwegian prince as his successor. Horatio, distraught at the thought of being the last survivor and living whilst Hamlet does not, says he will commit suicide by drinking the dregs of Gertrude's poisoned wine, but Hamlet begs him to live on and tell his story. Hamlet dies in Horatio's arms, proclaiming "the rest is silence". Fortinbras, who was ostensibly marching towards Poland with his army, arrives at the palace, along with an English ambassador bringing news of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's deaths. Horatio promises to recount the full story of what happened, and Fortinbras, seeing the entire Danish royal family dead, takes the crown for himself and orders a military funeral to honour Hamlet.

Heretic (video game)

Three brothers (D'Sparil, Korax, and Eidolon), known as the Serpent Riders, have used their powerful magic to possess seven kings of Parthoris, turning them into mindless puppets and corrupting their armies. The Sidhe elves resist the Serpent Riders' magic. The Serpent Riders thus declared the Sidhe as heretics and waged war against them. The Sidhe are forced to take a drastic measure to sever the natural power of the kings destroying them and their armies, but at the cost of weakening the elves' power, giving the Serpent Riders an advantage to slay the elders. While the Sidhe retreat, one elf (revealed to be named Corvus in ''Heretic II'') sets off on a quest of vengeance against the weakest of the three Serpent Riders, D'Sparil. He travels through the "City of the Damned", the ruined capital of the Sidhe (its real name is revealed to be Silverspring in ''Heretic II''), then past the demonic breeding grounds of Hell's Maw and finally the secret Dome of D'Sparil.

The player must first fight through the undead hordes infesting the location where the elders performed their ritual. At its end is the gateway to Hell's Maw, guarded by the Iron Liches. After defeating them, the player must seal the portal and so prevent further infestation, but after he enters the portal guarded by the Maulotaurs, he finds himself inside D'Sparil's dome. After killing D'Sparil, Corvus ends up on a perilous journey with little hope of returning home. However, he eventually succeeds in his endeavour, only to find that Parthoris is in disarray once again.

Hexen: Beyond Heretic

Following the tale of D'Sparil's defeat in ''Heretic'', ''Hexen'' takes place in another realm, Cronos, which is besieged by the second of the three Serpent Riders, Korax. Three heroes set out to destroy Korax. The player assumes the role of one such hero. Throughout the course of his quest, he travels through elemental dungeons, a wilderness region, a mountainside seminary, a large castle, and finally a necropolis, before the final showdown with the Serpent Rider.

Hexen II

Thyrion is a world that was enslaved by the Serpent Riders. The two previous games in the series documented the liberation of two other worlds, along with the death of their Serpent Rider overlords. Now, the oldest and most powerful of the three Serpent Rider brothers, Eidolon, must be defeated to free Thyrion. Eidolon is supported by his four generals, themselves a reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. To confront each general, the player has to travel to four different continents, each possessing a distinct theme (Medieval European for Blackmarsh, Mesoamerican for Mazaera, Ancient Egyptian for Thysis, and Greco-Roman for Septimus). Then, finally, the player returns to Blackmarsh in order to confront Eidolon himself inside of his own dominion Cathedral.

Heretic II

After Corvus returns from his banishment, he finds that a mysterious plague has swept the land of Parthoris, taking the sanity of those it does not kill. Corvus, the protagonist of the first game, is forced to flee his hometown of Silverspring after the infected attack him, but not before he is infected himself. The effects of the disease are held at bay in Corvus’ case because he holds one of the Tomes of Power, but he still must find a cure before he succumbs.

His quest leads him through the city and swamps to a jungle palace, then through a desert canyon and insect hive, followed by a dark network of mines and finally to a castle on a high mountain where he finds an ancient Seraph named Morcalavin. Morcalavin is trying to reach immortality using the seven Tomes of Power, but he uses a false tome, as Corvus has one of them. This has caused Morcalavin to go insane and create the plague. During a battle between Corvus and Morcalavin, Corvus switches the false tome for his real one, curing Morcalavin's insanity and ending the plague.

Heretics of Dune

Much has changed in the millennium and a half since the death of the God Emperor. Sandworms have reappeared on Arrakis (now called Rakis), each containing a fragment of the God Emperor's consciousness, and have renewed the flow of the all-important spice melange to the galaxy. With Leto's death, the complex economic system built on spice collapsed, resulting in a period of famine followed by trillions of people leaving known space in a great Scattering.

A new civilization has risen, with three dominant powers: the Ixians, whose no-ships are capable of piloting between the stars and are invisible to outside detection; the Bene Tleilax, who have learned to manufacture spice in their axlotl tanks and have created a new breed of Face Dancers; and the Bene Gesserit, a matriarchal order of subtle political manipulators who possess superhuman abilities. However, people from the Scattering are returning with their own peculiar powers. The most powerful of these forces are the Honored Matres, a violent society of women bred and trained for combat and the sexual control of men.

On Rakis, a girl who can control the giant worms called Sheeana (later revealed to be a descendant of Siona from the previous novel) has been discovered. The Bene Gesserit intends to use a Tleilaxu-provided Duncan Idaho ghola to gain control of this sandrider, and the religious forces of humanity who they know will ultimately worship her. The Tleilaxu have altered the ghola to bring its physical reflexes up to modern standards. The Bene Gesserit leader, Mother Superior Taraza, brings Miles Teg (also descended from Siona) to guard the new Idaho. Taraza also sends Reverend Mother Darwi Odrade to take command of the Bene Gesserit keep on Rakis. Odrade is a loose cannon; she does not obey normal Bene Gesserit prohibitions about love, and is also Teg's biological daughter.

Bene Gesserit Imprinter Lucilla (yet another descendant of Siona's) is also sent by Taraza to bind Idaho's loyalty to the Sisterhood with her sexual talents. However, Lucilla must deal with Reverend Mother Schwangyu, head of the ghola project but also the leader of a faction within the Bene Gesserit who feel the gholas are a danger. Above the planet Gammu (formerly known as Giedi Prime), Taraza is captured and held hostage by the Honored Matres aboard an Ixian no-ship. The Honored Matres insist Taraza invite Teg to the ship, hoping to gain control of the ghola project. Teg manages to turn the tables on the Matres, and rescues the Mother Superior and her party.

An attack is then made on Sheeana on Rakis, which is prevented by the intervention of the Bene Gesserit. Odrade starts training Sheeana as a Bene Gesserit. At about the same time an attempt is made on the life of Idaho, but Teg is able to defeat it. Teg flees with Duncan and Lucilla into the countryside. In an ancient Harkonnen no-globe, Teg proceeds to awaken Idaho's original memories, but does so before Lucilla can imprint Duncan and thus tie him to the Sisterhood.

In the meantime, Taraza has sent her trusted general Burzmali to search for Teg and his party, who finally establishes contact with Teg, his former mentor. During the operation, however, Teg and his companions are ambushed. Teg is captured while Lucilla and Duncan escape. Teg is tortured by a T-Probe, but under pressure discovers new abilities: drastically increased physical capabilities and an uncertain type of prescience, which he uses to easily escape. At the same time, Idaho is ambushed and taken hostage. Taraza arranges a meeting with the Tleilaxu Master Waff, who is soon forced to tell her what he knows about the Honored Matres. When pressed on the issue of Idaho, he also admits that the Bene Tleilax have conditioned their own agenda into him.

As the meeting draws to a close, Taraza accidentally divines that Waff is a Zensunni, giving the Bene Gesserit a lever to understand their ancient competitor. She and Odrade meet Waff again on Rakis. He tries to assassinate Taraza but Odrade convinces him that the Sisterhood shares the religious beliefs of the Bene Tleilax. Taraza offers full alliance with them against the onslaught of forces out of the Scattering. This agreement causes consternation among the Bene Gesserit, but Odrade realizes that Taraza's plan is to destroy Rakis. By destroying the planet, the Bene Gesserit would be dependent on the Tleilaxu for the spice, ensuring an alliance.

Lucilla arrives at a Bene Gesserit safe house to discover it has been taken over by a young Honored Matre named Murbella, who has partially subdued Idaho. After being defeated in a quick bout of personal combat, Murbella assumes that Lucilla is the Great Honored Matre, and allows Lucilla and Burzmali to watch through the window of a locked room while she completes the sexual enslavement of the ghola. However, hidden Tleilaxu conditioning kicks in, and Duncan responds with an equal technique, one that overwhelms Murbella; the experience restores in him the entire memories from all of the hundreds of previous Idaho gholas. Stunned and exhausted, Murbella dimly realizes that the man is the ghola they had been warned to search for, and unlocks the door to the room to gain Lucilla's assistance in killing him. But Lucilla says, "We will kill no one. This ghola goes to Rakis."

The Honored Matres attack Rakis, killing Taraza. Odrade becomes temporary leader of the Bene Gesserit before escaping with Sheeana into the desert on a worm. Teg also goes to a supposed safe house, only to discover the Honored Matres. He unleashes himself upon the complex, and finds that his prescient powers allow him to 'see' shielded no-ships; he captures one and locates Duncan and Lucilla. They are taken to Rakis with him and the now-hostage Murbella. When they arrive, Teg intercepts Odrade and Sheeana and their giant worm, having seen Taraza's master plan with his new vision. He loads them all up in his no-ship, finally leading his troops out on a last suicidal defense of Rakis, designed to attract the rage of the Honored Matres.

The Honored Matres attack Rakis, destroying the planet and the sandworms except for the one the Bene Gesserit escape with. They intend to drown the worm in a mixture of water and spice, turning it into sandtrout which will turn the secret Bene Gesserit planet Chapterhouse into another Dune, but with the collective consciousness of the God Emperor diluted into just one sandworm, freeing humanity from the shadow of his prescience forever.

Heathers

At Westerburg High School in Sherwood, Ohio, Veronica Sawyer is part of a popular but feared clique, along with three other wealthy and beautiful girls with the same first name: Heather Duke, Heather McNamara and the school's ruthless queen bee, Heather Chandler. The four girls often play croquet in Veronica's backyard. Tired of the clique abusing its power, Veronica longs for her old life with her kinder but less popular friends. She becomes fascinated with Jason "J.D." Dean, a new student and rebellious outsider, after he pulls out a gun and fires blanks to scare bullies Kurt Kelly and Ram Sweeney.

Veronica attends a frat party with Chandler, where she refuses to have sex with one of the members and drunkenly vomits on Chandler. In retaliation, Chandler vows to destroy her reputation. Later that night, J.D. shows up by surprise at Veronica's house, and the two have sex outside. They express to each other their mutual hatred of Chandler's tyranny.

The next morning, Veronica and J.D. break into Chandler's house, planning to get revenge by using a fake hangover cure to make Chandler vomit. J.D. pours drain cleaner into a mug, but Veronica dismisses him, thinking he is making a mean joke. She mixes orange juice and milk together instead. However, Veronica accidentally brings the wrong mug to Chandler's room; J.D. notices this but says nothing. He serves Chandler the drain cleaner, killing her. Veronica panics, and J.D. urges her to forge a dramatic suicide note in Chandler's handwriting. The school and community regard Chandler's apparent suicide as a tragic decision made by a troubled teenager, making her even more worshipped in death than in life. Meanwhile, Duke uses the attention surrounding Chandler's death to gain popularity, becoming the clique's new leader.

After Chandler's funeral, McNamara convinces Veronica to go with her, Kurt, and Ram on a double date. J.D. finds the four teens that evening in a field, and Veronica leaves with him as Kurt passes out, and Ram and Heather have sex. The following day, the boys spread a false rumor about Veronica performing oral sex on them and ruining her reputation. J.D. proposes that he and Veronica lure the boys into the woods, shoot them with tranquilizers, and humiliate them by staging the scene to look like they were lovers participating in a suicide pact. J.D. shoots Ram, but Veronica's shot misses Kurt, who runs away. J.D. chases Kurt back towards Veronica who realizing that the bullets are in fact lethal, fatally shoots him in a panic. J.D. and Veronica are nearly caught by police, but they make out in a station wagon to pretend they were there all along and had nothing to do with it. At their funeral, the boys are made into martyrs to homophobia. Growing increasingly disturbed by J.D.'s behavior, Veronica breaks up with him.

A little while after this, J.D. blackmails Duke into getting every student to sign a "petition" that, unbeknownst to her, is intended to act as a mass suicide note. He then gives her a red scrunchie that Chandler had worn, signifying her new power over the school. Meanwhile, Martha Dunnstock, a frequent target of bullying, pins a suicide note to her chest and walks into oncoming traffic. She survives but is badly injured and mocked by her peers for attempting to copy the popular kids. Later, McNamara calls a radio show to discuss her depression; Duke tells the entire school about the radio call the next day, and McNamara is bullied. McNamara attempts suicide by overdosing in the girls' bathroom, but Veronica intervenes.

Veronica returns home, and her parents say that J.D. stopped by to tell them that he was worried she would attempt suicide. He leaves a note revealing he can successfully imitate her handwriting, and a Barbie doll hanging in her room. J.D. breaks into Veronica's house with a plan to kill Heather Duke, but the murder is revealed to be a dream sequence. Realizing that J.D. plans to kill her, she fakes her own suicide. J.D. finds her and, assuming she is dead, gives a monologue revealing his plan to blow up the school pep rally and make it look like a mass suicide. The next day, Veronica confronts J.D. in the boiler room as he plants dynamite. She shoots him, and his switchblade cuts the wires to the detonator. Veronica goes outside, and J.D. follows her with a bomb strapped to his chest. He offers a personal eulogy and detonates the bomb, killing himself. As students and faculty rush outside to see what happened, Veronica walks back inside, dirty and disheveled from the explosion. She approaches Duke, takes the red scrunchie, and asserts that Duke is no longer in charge. Veronica then invites Martha to spend prom night watching movies together, as Duke looks on.

House of Cards (British TV series)

After Margaret Thatcher's resignation, the ruling Conservative Party is about to elect a new leader. Francis Urquhart (Ian Richardson), a Member of Parliament (MP) and the Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons, introduces viewers to the contestants, from which Henry "Hal" Collingridge (David Lyon) emerges victorious. Urquhart is secretly contemptuous of the well-meaning but weak Collingridge, but expects a promotion to a senior position in the Cabinet. After the general election, which the party wins by a reduced majority, Urquhart submits his suggestions for a reshuffle that includes his desired promotion. However, Collingridge – citing Harold Macmillan's political demise after the 1962 Night of the Long Knives – effects no changes at all. Urquhart resolves to oust Collingridge, with encouragement from his wife, Elizabeth (Diane Fletcher).

At the same time, with Elizabeth's blessing, Urquhart begins an affair with Mattie Storin (Susannah Harker), a junior political reporter at a Conservative-leaning tabloid newspaper called ''The Chronicle''. The affair allows Urquhart to manipulate Mattie and indirectly skew her coverage of the Conservative leadership contest in his favour. Mattie has an apparent Electra complex; she finds appeal in Urquhart's much older age and later refers to him as "Daddy". Another unwitting pawn is Roger O'Neill (Miles Anderson), the party's cocaine-addicted public relations consultant.

Urquhart blackmails O'Neill into leaking information on budget cuts that humiliates Collingridge during the Prime Minister's Questions. Later, he blames party chairman Lord "Teddy" Billsborough (Nicholas Selby) for leaking an internal poll showing a drop in Tory numbers, leading Collingridge to sack him. As Collingridge's image suffers, Urquhart encourages ultraconservative Foreign Secretary Patrick Woolton (Malcolm Tierney) and ''Chronicle'' owner Benjamin Landless (Kenny Ireland) to support his removal. He also poses as Collingridge's alcoholic brother Charles (James Villiers) to trade shares in a chemical company about to benefit from advance information confidential to the government. Consequently, Collingridge becomes falsely accused of insider trading and is forced to resign.

In the ensuing leadership race, Urquhart initially feigns unwillingness to stand before announcing his candidacy. With the help of his underling, Tim Stamper (Colin Jeavons), Urquhart goes about making sure his competitors drop out of the race: Health Secretary Peter MacKenzie (Christopher Owen) accidentally runs his car over a disabled protester at a demonstration staged by Urquhart and is forced by the public outcry to withdraw, while Education Secretary Harold Earle (Kenneth Gilbert) is blackmailed into withdrawing when Urquhart anonymously sends pictures of him in the company of a rent boy whom Earle had paid for sex.

The first ballot leaves Urquhart to face Woolton and Michael Samuels, the moderate Environment Secretary supported by Billsborough. Urquhart eliminates Woolton by a prolonged scheme: at the party conference, he pressures O'Neill into persuading his personal assistant and lover, Penny Guy (Alphonsia Emmanuel), to have a one-night stand with Woolton in his suite, which Urquhart records via a bugged ministerial red box. When the tape is sent to Woolton, he is led to assume that Samuels is behind the scheme and backs Urquhart in the contest. Urquhart also receives support from Collingridge, who is unaware of Urquhart's role in his own downfall. Samuels is forced out of the running when the tabloids reveal that he backed leftist causes as a student at University of Cambridge.

Stumbling across contradictions in the allegations against Collingridge and his brother, Mattie begins to dig deeper. On Urquhart's orders, O'Neill arranges for her car and flat to be vandalised in a show of intimidation. However, O'Neill becomes increasingly uneasy with what he is being asked to do, and his cocaine addiction adds to his instability. Urquhart mixes O'Neill's cocaine with rat poison, causing him to kill himself when taking the cocaine in a motorway service station lavatory on the M27 at Rownhams. Though initially blind to the truth of matters thanks to her relations with Urquhart, Mattie eventually deduces that Urquhart is responsible for O'Neill's death and is behind the unfortunate downfalls of Collingridge and all of Urquhart's rivals.

Mattie looks for Urquhart at the point when it seems his victory is certain. She eventually finds him on the roof garden of the Houses of Parliament, where she confronts him. He admits to O'Neill's murder and everything else he has done. He then asks whether he can trust Mattie, and, though she answers in the affirmative, he does not believe her and throws her off the roof onto a van parked below. An unseen person picks up Mattie's tape recorder, which she had been using to secretly record her conversations with Urquhart. The series ends with Urquhart defeating Samuels in the second leadership ballot and being driven to Buckingham Palace to be invited to form a government by Elizabeth II.

Hapworth 16, 1924

The story is presented in the form of a letter from camp written by a seven-year-old Seymour Glass (the main character of "A Perfect Day for Bananafish"). In this respect, the plot is identical to Salinger's previous unpublished story "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls", written 18 years earlier in 1947. In the course of requesting an inordinate quantity of reading matter from home, Seymour predicts his brother's success as a writer as well as his own death and offers critical assessments of a number of major writers.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

In St. Petersburg, Missouri, on the shore of the Mississippi River, during the 1830s–1840s, Huckleberry "Huck" Finn has come into a considerable sum of money following ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' and is placed under the strict guardianship of the Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson. The women attempt to civilize him, but Huck prefers to have adventures with his friend Tom Sawyer. His father, "Pap", an abusive alcoholic, returns to town and tries to appropriate Huck's fortune. When this fails, Pap kidnaps Huck and confines him in a cabin in the woods.

To escape his father, Huck elaborately fakes his own murder and sets off downriver. He settles on Jackson's Island, where he reunites with Miss Watson's slave Jim, who ran away after overhearing she was planning to sell him. Huck decides to go downriver with Jim to Cairo, in the free state of Illinois. After heavy flooding, the two find a timber raft and an entire house floating down the river. Inside, Jim finds a body that has been shot to death but prevents Huck from viewing the corpse. Huck sneaks into town and discovers there is a reward out for Jim, who is suspected of killing Huck; the two flee on their raft.

Huck and Jim come across a grounded steamer, where two thieves are discussing murdering a third. Finding that their own raft has drifted away, Huck and Jim flee in the thieves' boat before being noticed. They find their own raft again and sink the thieves' boat, keeping their loot. Huck tricks a watchman into going to rescue the stranded thieves to assuage his conscience. Huck and Jim are separated in a fog, and when they reunite, Huck tricks Jim into thinking he dreamed the entire incident. Jim is disappointed when Huck admits the truth. Huck is surprised by Jim's strong feelings and apologizes.

Huck is conflicted about supporting a runaway slave, which he has been taught is a sin. He decides to turn Jim in, but when two white men seeking runaway slaves come upon the raft, he lies to them and they leave. Jim and Huck realize they have passed Cairo. With no way of getting back upriver, they decide to continue downriver. The raft is struck by a passing steamship, again separating the two.

On the riverbank, Huck meets the Grangerford family, who are engaged in a 30-year blood feud with the Shepherdson family, although no one remembers why the feud originally started. After a Grangerford daughter elopes with a Shepherdson boy, the feud boils over and all the Grangerford males are shot and killed in a Shepherdson ambush. Huck escapes and is reunited with Jim, who has recovered and repaired the raft.

Downriver, Jim and Huck are joined by two confidence men claiming to be a King and a Duke. The swindlers rope Huck and Jim into playing along with a series of scams. In one town, the swindlers scam the townsfolk with a short and overpriced performance. On the third night, the grifters flee before the townsfolk can take revenge. In the next town, the swindlers impersonate brothers of recently-deceased Peter Wilks to steal his estate. Huck tries to retrieve the money for Wilks's orphaned nieces. Two men claiming to be Wilks' real brothers arrive, causing an uproar. Huck tries to flee in the confusion, but is caught by the grifters. Eventually he escapes, but finds that the swindlers have sold Jim to the Phelps family plantation. Huck vows to free Jim, despite believing he will go to hell as a consequence.

The Phelps family mistakes Huck for their nephew Tom, who is expected for a visit, and Huck plays along. It turns out their nephew is Tom Sawyer. When he arrives, he plays along with Huck's story and develops a theatrical plan to free Jim. During the escape, Tom is wounded. Jim tends to him instead of escaping, and is arrested and returned to the plantation. Tom's Aunt Polly arrives and reveals the boys' true identities. She explains that Miss Watson has died, freeing Jim in her will. Tom admits he knew this, but wanted to "rescue" Jim in style. Jim says that Huck's father was the dead man they found in the floating house, so Huck may return safely to St. Petersburg. Huck declares that he intends to flee west to Indian Territory to escape being adopted by the Phelps family.

Ivanhoe

### Opening

Protagonist Wilfred of Ivanhoe is disinherited by his father Cedric of Rotherwood for supporting the Norman King Richard and for falling in love with the Lady Rowena, a ward of Cedric and descendant of the Saxon Kings of England. Cedric planned to have Rowena marry the powerful Lord Athelstane, a pretender to the Crown of England by his descent from the last Saxon King, Harold Godwinson. Ivanhoe accompanies King Richard on the Third Crusade, where he is said to have played a notable role in the Siege of Acre; and tends to Louis of Thuringia, who suffers from malaria.

The book opens with a scene of Norman knights and prelates seeking the hospitality of Cedric. They are guided there by a pilgrim, known at that time as a palmer. Also returning from the Holy Land that same night, Isaac of York, a Jewish moneylender, seeks refuge at Rotherwood. Following the night's meal, the palmer observes one of the Normans, the Templar Brian de Bois-Guilbert, issue orders to his Saracen soldiers to capture Isaac.

The palmer then assists in Isaac's escape from Rotherwood, with the additional aid of the swineherd Gurth.

Isaac of York offers to repay his debt to the palmer with a suit of armour and a war horse to participate in the tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle, on his inference that the palmer was secretly a knight. The palmer is taken by surprise, but accepts the offer.

### The tournament

The tournament is presided over by Prince John. Also in attendance are Cedric, Athelstane, Lady Rowena, Isaac of York, his daughter Rebecca, Robin of Locksley and his men, Prince John's advisor Waldemar Fitzurse, and numerous Norman knights.

On the first day of the tournament, in a bout of individual jousting, a mysterious knight, identifying himself only as "Desdichado" (described in the book as Spanish, taken by the Saxons to mean Disinherited), defeats Bois-Guilbert. The masked knight declines to reveal himself despite Prince John's request, but is nevertheless declared the champion of the day and is permitted to choose the Queen of the Tournament. He bestows this honour upon Lady Rowena.

On the second day, at a melee, Desdichado is the leader of one party, opposed by his former adversaries. Desdichado's side is soon hard-pressed and he himself beset by multiple foes until rescued by a knight nicknamed ''Le Noir Faineant'' ('the Black Sluggard'), who thereafter departs in secret. When forced to unmask himself to receive his coronet (the sign of championship), Desdichado is identified as Wilfred of Ivanhoe, returned from the Crusades. This causes much consternation to Prince John and his court who now fear the imminent return of King Richard.

Ivanhoe is severely wounded in the competition yet his father does not move quickly to tend to him. Instead, Rebecca, a skilled healer, tends to him while they are lodged near the tournament and then convinces her father to take Ivanhoe with them to their home in York when he is fit for that trip. The conclusion of the tournament includes feats of archery by Locksley, such as splitting a willow reed with his arrow. Prince John's dinner for the local Saxons ends in insults.

### Capture and rescue

In the forests between Ashby and York, Isaac, Rebecca and the wounded Ivanhoe are abandoned by their guards, who fear bandits and take all of Isaac's horses. Cedric, Athelstane and the Lady Rowena meet them and agree to travel together. The party is captured by de Bracy and his companions and taken to Torquilstone, the castle of Front-de-Boeuf. The swineherd Gurth and Wamba the jester manage to escape, and then encounter Locksley, who plans a rescue.

The Black Knight, having taken refuge for the night in the hut of local friar, the Holy Clerk of Copmanhurst, volunteers his assistance on learning about the captives from Robin of Locksley. They then besiege the Castle of Torquilstone with Robin's own men, including the friar and assorted Saxon yeomen. Inside Torquilstone, de Bracy expresses his love for the Lady Rowena but is refused. Brian de Bois-Guilbert tries to seduce Rebecca and is rebuffed. Front-de-Boeuf tries to wring a hefty ransom from Isaac of York, but Isaac refuses to pay unless his daughter is freed.

When the besiegers deliver a note to yield up the captives, their Norman captors demand a priest to administer the Final Sacrament to Cedric; whereupon Cedric's jester Wamba slips in disguised as a priest, and takes the place of Cedric, who escapes and brings important information to the besiegers on the strength of the garrison and its layout. The besiegers storm the castle. The castle is set aflame during the assault by Ulrica, the daughter of the original lord of the castle, Lord Torquilstone, as revenge for her father's death. Front-de-Boeuf is killed in the fire while de Bracy surrenders to the Black Knight, who identifies himself as King Richard and releases de Bracy. Bois-Guilbert escapes with Rebecca while Isaac is captured by the Clerk of Copmanhurst. The Lady Rowena is saved by Cedric, while the still-wounded Ivanhoe is rescued from the burning castle by King Richard. In the fighting, Athelstane is wounded and presumed dead while attempting to rescue Rebecca, whom he mistakes for Rowena.

### Rebecca's trial and Ivanhoe's reconciliation

Following the battle, Locksley plays host to King Richard. Word is conveyed by de Bracy to Prince John of the King's return and the fall of Torquilstone. In the meantime, Bois-Guilbert rushes with his captive to the nearest Templar Preceptory, where Lucas de Beaumanoir, the Grand Master of the Templars, takes umbrage at Bois-Guilbert's infatuation and subjects Rebecca to a trial for witchcraft. At Bois-Guilbert's secret request, she claims the right to trial by combat; and Bois-Guilbert, who had hoped for the position, is devastated when the Grand-Master orders him to fight against Rebecca's champion. Rebecca then writes to her father to procure a champion for her. Cedric organises Athelstane's funeral at Coningsburgh, in the midst of which the Black Knight arrives with a companion. Cedric, who had not been present at Locksley's carousal, is ill-disposed towards the knight upon learning his true identity; but Richard calms Cedric and reconciles him with his son. During this conversation, Athelstane emerges – not dead, but laid in his coffin alive by monks desirous of the funeral money. Over Cedric's renewed protests, Athelstane pledges his homage to the Norman King Richard and urges Cedric to marry Rowena to Ivanhoe, to which Cedric finally agrees.

Soon after this reconciliation, Ivanhoe receives word from Isaac beseeching him to fight on Rebecca's behalf. Ivanhoe, riding day and night, arrives in time for the trial by combat; however, both horse and man are exhausted, with little chance of victory. The two knights make one charge at each other with lances, Bois-Guilbert appearing to have the advantage. However, Bois-Guilbert, a man trying to have it all without offering to marry Rebecca, dies of natural causes in the saddle before the combat can continue.

Ivanhoe and Rowena marry and live a long and happy life together. Fearing further persecution, Rebecca and her father plan to quit England for Granada. Before leaving, Rebecca comes to Rowena shortly after the wedding to bid her a solemn farewell. Ivanhoe's military service ends with the death of King Richard five years later.

Into the Woods

### Act I

A Narrator introduces four characters: Cinderella, who wishes to attend the King's festival; Jack who wishes his cow, Milky White, would give milk; a Baker and his Wife, both of whom wish to have a child. All three wishes, however, are hindered: Cinderella's step-family openly mocks her and treats her like a servant; Jack's mother, lamenting her and Jack's lack of wealth, forces Jack to sell Milky White at the market despite Jack's protests; The Baker and his Wife attempts to have a child of their own are hindered by a mysterious bout of infertility on the Wife's part. Little Red Riding Hood appears at the bakery wishing for bread and sweets to bring to her grandmother's house. Cinderella's stepmother dumps a pot of lentils into the fireplace for Cinderella to clean up, promising that only then will they let her go to the festival. To help her, she calls for birds in the skies. Meanwhile, a witch appears at the bakery revealing to the baker and his wife that they are infertile because of a spell she placed on the baker's father many years ago. She explains that he stole vegetables from the Witch's garden to appease his wife's appetite while she was pregnant, a fact she let happen on the condition they give her the baby as payment. As he was leaving, however, he stole some beans for himself that he did not realize were magic. When they were taken from the garden, the Witch lost her beauty. When the day came for the Witch to take the child, Rapunzel, the Witch, embittered by what happened, cast the spell over their family preventing them from ever having children again. She explains that the only way to lift the spell is to find four ingredients in the woods: a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold and bring them to her before three days is up. As Cinderella's step-family prepares to leave for the festival, they once again refuse Cinderella's wish to go with them. As he is preparing to leave, the Baker finds six magic beans in his father's old jacket. All begin their journeys into the woods: Jack to sell his beloved cow; Cinderella to seek advice from her mother's grave; Little Red to her grandmother's house; and the Baker, refusing his Wife's help, to find the ingredients ("Prologue: Into the Woods").

When she gets to her mother's grave, Cinderella repeats her wish to attend the festival and the spirit of her mother gifts her with a gown and golden slippers ("Cinderella at the Grave"). A Mysterious Man mocks Jack for valuing his cow more than a "sack of beans". Little Red meets a hungry Wolf who distracts her from her path, hatching a plan to eat both her and her grandmother ("Hello Little Girl"). The Baker, secretly followed by his Wife, meets Jack. Together, they convince Jack that the beans found in the jacket are magic, trade five of them for the cow and Jack bids Milky White a tearful farewell ("I Guess This Is Goodbye"). The Baker feels guilty about their deceit, but his wife reassures him that it will pay off when they get their child ("Maybe They're Magic").

It is revealed that the Witch has raised Rapunzel in a tall tower, only accessible by climbing Rapunzel's long, golden hair ("Our Little World"); a Prince spies Rapunzel and plans to meet her. When the Baker passes by Little Red's grandmother's house, he finds that the Wolf has eaten them both. In pursuit of her red cape, he stabs the Wolf and rescues Little Red and her grandmother. In return, Little Red gives him her cape, and reflects on her experiences ("I Know Things Now").

When Jack's Mother sees the exchange Jack has made for Milky White, she angrily tosses his beans aside, which grow into an enormous stalk. Cinderella flees the Festival, pursued by another Prince, and the Baker's Wife helps to hide her. When asked about the ball, Cinderella is unimpressed ("A Very Nice Prince"). Spotting Cinderella's gold slippers, the Baker's Wife chases her and loses Milky White as a clock chimes twelve times ("First Midnight").

Jack describes his adventure climbing the beanstalk ("Giants in the Sky") and gives the Baker gold he stole from the giants to buy back his cow. The Baker is hesitant about selling so Jack returns up the beanstalk to find more gold. The Mysterious Man questions what the Baker cares more about, the money or his child, and takes the money. Cinderella's Prince and Rapunzel's Prince, both brothers, lament over their loves ("Agony") and the Baker's Wife overhears their talk of a girl with golden hair. As she takes hair from Rapunzel, the Baker finds Milky White, aided by the Mysterious Man. The Baker concludes they must work together and they hatch a plan to finally seize Cinderella's slipper ("It Takes Two"). Jack arrives with a golden egg as more money for the Baker but Milky White dies as midnight chimes ("Second Midnight").

The Witch discovers the Prince's visits and demands Rapunzel stay sheltered from the world ("Stay with Me"). Rapunzel refuses, and the Witch cuts off her hair, banishing her to a desert. Jack meets Little Red, now sporting a wolf skin cape and knife. He brags about his adventures in the sky, and mentions a golden harp owned by the Giant. She skeptically goads him into returning to the Giant's home to retrieve it.

Cinderella, torn between staying with her Prince or escaping, leaves him one of her slippers, putting the decision into his hands ("On the Steps of the Palace"), and trades shoes with the Baker's Wife for the last magic bean, though she throws it away in the process. The Baker arrives with another cow and they rejoice over having all four objects, however, the Witch discovers that the Baker has covered a cow in flour to make it appear white. The Witch resurrects Milky White and Jack returns with the harp. A great crash is heard, and Jack's mother reports a dead Giant in her backyard, though no one pays attention. The Witch instructs the Baker to feed the objects to Milky White, though no milk is produced. The Witch learns that the hair is Rapunzel's and will not work because she had touched it. When the Mysterious Man proposes using corn silk instead, Milky White produces the potion and the Witch drinks it, making her young and beautiful once again. She also reveals that the Mysterious Man is the Baker's father, though he dies as soon as she drinks the potion.

Cinderella's Prince seeks the girl who fits the slipper and the desperate stepsisters mutilate their feet, though the Prince sees through it, eventually seeing Cinderella and realizing that she is the one ("Careful, My Toe"). Rapunzel is found by her Prince and as the Witch attempts to curse her, she realizes that in exchange for her beauty, she has lost her powers. At Cinderella's wedding, her stepsisters are blinded by birds, and the Baker's Wife, now pregnant, thanks Cinderella for her help. Congratulating themselves on living happily ("Ever After"), the characters fail to notice another beanstalk growing.

### Act II

The Narrator continues, "Once Upon a Time... Later". Everyone still has wishes: the Baker and his Wife face new frustrations with their infant son; newly rich Jack misses the kingdom in the sky; Cinderella is bored with life in the palace ("So Happy"); but all are still relatively content. With a tremendous crash, a Giant's foot destroys the Witch's garden, and damages the Baker's home. The Baker travels to the palace, but his warning is ignored by the Prince's Steward. Returning home, he finds Little Red on her way to Granny's, as her house was also destroyed; he and his Wife escort her. Jack decides to slay the Giant and Cinderella investigates her mother's disturbed grave. Everyone returns to the woods, but now "the skies are strange, the winds are strong" ("Into the Woods" Reprise). Rapunzel, driven mad, also flees to the woods. Her Prince follows and meets his brother; they confess their lust for two new women, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty ("Agony" Reprise).

The Baker, his Wife, and Little Red find Cinderella's family and the Steward, who reveal the castle was set upon by the Giant. The Witch brings news that the Giant destroyed the village and the Baker's house. The Giantess – the widow of the Giant who Jack killed – appears, seeking revenge. The group decides to offer up the Narrator as a sacrifice. Jack's mother defends her son. This angers the Giantess, and the Steward's attempts to keep Jack's mother quiet ends up killing her. As the Giantess leaves to try and find Jack, Rapunzel gets trampled ("Witch's Lament"). The Baker pleads for The Royal Family to stay and fight. However, they decide to flee instead. The Witch vows to find Jack and give him to the Giantess. Not wanting anything to happen to Jack, the Baker and his Wife split up to find him first. Cinderella's Prince then seduces the Baker's Wife ("Any Moment"). The Baker ends up finding Cinderella and convinces her to join their group. The Baker's Wife reflects on her affair with the Prince ("Moments in the Woods"), but encounters the Giantess and is killed.

The Baker, Little Red, and Cinderella await the return of the Baker's Wife when the Witch arrives with Jack, found weeping over the Baker's Wife's body. The Baker blames Jack and the two, along with Cinderella and Little Red argue and blame each other (Jack for stealing from the Giants; The Baker for his family's greedy tendencies; Red Riding Hood for goading Jack into stealing the harp; Cinderella for unwittingly giving the Giantess the means to attack them) before all turning on the Witch for procuring the beans that started all of this ("Your Fault"). Chastising their inability to accept the consequences of their own actions, the Witch throws away the rest of her beans, thus regaining her powers so that she can vanish, abandoning the group ("Last Midnight").

Grief-stricken, the Baker flees, but is convinced by his father's spirit to face his responsibilities ("No More"). He returns and the group devises a plan to kill the Giantess. Cinderella stays behind with the Baker's child and confronts her Prince over his infidelity; he explains his feelings of unfulfillment and that he was only raised to be charming, but not sincere, and she asks him to leave, which he reluctantly does.

Little Red discovers her grandmother has been killed by the Giantess, as the Baker tells Jack that his mother is dead. Jack vows to kill the Steward but the Baker dissuades and comforts him, while Cinderella comforts Little Red. The Baker and Cinderella explain that choices have consequences, and everyone is connected ("No One Is Alone"). The four together slay the Giantess. The other characters – including the Royal Family, most of whom have starved to death, and the Princes with their new paramours (Sleeping Beauty and Snow White) – return to share one last set of morals.

The survivors band together, the Baker, Cinderella, Jack and Little Red decide to live together, and the spirit of the Baker's Wife comforts her mourning husband, encouraging him to tell their child their story. The Baker begins to tell his son the tale, while the Witch and the rest of the characters, dead and alive, offer a final lesson: "Careful the things you say: Children will listen" ("Finale").

Johnny Got His Gun

Joe Bonham, a young American soldier serving in World War I, awakens in a hospital bed after being caught in the blast of an exploding artillery shell. He gradually realizes that he has lost his arms, legs, and all of his face (including his eyes, ears, nose, teeth, and tongue), but that his mind functions perfectly, leaving him a prisoner in his own body.

Joe attempts suicide by suffocation, but finds that he has had a tracheotomy that he can neither remove nor control. At first Joe wishes to die, but he later decides that he desires to be placed in a glass box and toured around the country in order to show others the true horrors of war. Joe successfully communicates these desires with military officials after months and months of banging his head on his pillow in Morse code. However, he realizes that the military will not grant his wishes, as it is "against regulations". It is implied that he will live the rest of his natural life in his condition.

As Joe drifts between reality and fantasy, he remembers his old life with his family and girlfriend, and reflects upon the myths and realities of war.

King Kong (1933 film)

In New York Harbor, filmmaker Carl Denham, known for wildlife films in remote and exotic locations, charters Captain Englehorn's ship, the ''Venture'', for his new project. However, he is unable to secure an actress for a female role he has been reluctant to disclose. Searching in the streets of New York City, he finds Ann Darrow and promises her the adventure of a lifetime. The crew boards the ''Venture'' and sets off, during which the ship's first mate, Jack Driscoll, falls in love with Ann. Denham reveals to the crew that their destination is in fact Skull Island, an uncharted territory. He alludes to a mysterious entity named ''Kong'', rumored to dwell on the island. The crew arrives and anchor offshore. They encounter a native village, separated from the rest of the island by an enormous stone wall with a large wooden gate. They witness a group of natives preparing to sacrifice a young woman termed the "bride of Kong". The intruders are spotted and the native chief stops the ceremony. When he sees Ann, he offers to trade six of his tribal women for the "golden woman". They refuse him and return to the ship.

That night, the natives kidnap Ann from the ship and take her through the gate and onto an altar, where she is offered to King Kong, a giant gorilla-like beast. Kong carries a terrified Ann away as Denham, Jack and some volunteers enter the jungle in hopes of rescuing her. They encounter a living dinosaur, a charging ''Stegosaurus'', which they manage to kill. Soon after, the crew runs into an aggressive ''Brontosaurus'' and eventually Kong himself, leaving Jack and Denham as the only survivors. After Kong slays a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' that tried to eat Ann, Jack continues to follow them while Denham returns to the village for more men. Upon arriving in Kong's mountain lair, Ann is menaced by a snake-like ''Elasmosaurus'', which Kong also kills. While Kong is distracted killing a ''Pteranodon'' that tried to fly away with Ann, Jack reaches her and they climb down a vine dangling from a cliff ledge. When Kong notices and starts pulling them back up, the two drop into the water below. They run through the jungle and back to the village, where Denham, Englehorn, and the surviving crewmen are waiting. Kong, following, breaks open the gate and relentlessly rampages through the village. Onshore, Denham, now determined to bring Kong back alive, renders him unconscious with a gas bomb.

Shackled in chains, Kong is taken to New York City and presented to a Broadway theatre audience as "Kong, Eighth Wonder of the World!". Ann and Jack are brought on stage to join him, surrounded by a group of press photographers. Kong, believing that the ensuing flash photography is an attack, breaks loose as the audience flees in horror. Ann is whisked away to a hotel room on a high floor, but Kong, scaling the building, soon finds her. He rampages through the city as Ann screams in his grasp; wrecking a crowded elevated train and eventually climbing the Empire State Building. At its top, he is attacked by four airplanes. Kong destroys one, but finally succumbs to their gunfire. He gazes at Ann one last time before falling to his death. Jack takes an elevator to the top of the building and reunites with Ann. Denham arrives and pushes through a crowd surrounding Kong's corpse in the street. When a policeman remarks that the planes got him, Denham tells him, "No, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast".

Kid Icarus

The game is set in Angel Land, which is a fantasy world with a Greek mythology theme. Before the events of the game, Earth was ruled by Palutena (Goddess of Light) and Medusa (Goddess of Darkness). Palutena bestowed the people with light to make them happy. Medusa hated the humans, dried up their crop, and turned them to stone. Enraged by this, Palutena transformed Medusa into a monster and banished her to the Underworld. Out of revenge, Medusa conspired with the monsters of the Underworld to take over Palutena's residence the Palace in the Sky. She launched a surprise attack, and stole the three sacred treasures — the Mirror Shield, the Light Arrows and the Wings of Pegasus — which deprived Palutena's army of its power. After her soldiers had been turned to stone by Medusa, Palutena was defeated in battle and imprisoned deep inside the Palace in the Sky.

With her last power, she sent a bow and arrow to the young angel Pit. He escapes from his prison in the Underworld and sets out to save Palutena and Angel Land. Throughout the course of the story, Pit retrieves the three sacred treasures from the fortress gatekeepers at their respective fortresses in the Underworld, the Overworld, and the Skyworld. Afterward, he equips himself with the treasures and storms the sky temple where he defeats Medusa and rescues Palutena. The game has five different endings; depending on the player's performance, Palutena may present Pit with headgear or transform him into a full-grown angel. In the Japanese version, the best ending from the English version does not exist, and instead another bad ending is present.

Icehenge

''Icehenge'' is set at three distinct time periods, and told from the perspective of three different characters.

The first narrative is the diary of an engineer caught up in a Martian political revolution in 2248. Effectively kidnapped aboard a mutinous Martian spaceship, she provides assistance to the revolutionaries in their quest for interstellar travel, but ultimately chooses not to travel with them but to return to the doomed revolution on Mars.

The second narrative is told from the perspective of an archaeologist three centuries later. He is involved in a project investigating the failed revolution, and during this finds the engineer's diary buried near the remains of a ruined city. At the same time, a mysterious monument is found at the north pole of Pluto, tying up with a passing mention in the engineer's diary.

In the final narrative, the great-grandson of the archaeologist visits the monument on Pluto, a scaled-up version of Stonehenge carved in ice. He is investigating the possibility that both the diary and the monument were planted by a reclusive and wealthy businesswoman who lives in the orbit of Saturn.

Monty Python's Life of Brian

Brian Cohen is born in a stable next door to the one in which Jesus is born, which initially confuses the three wise men who come to praise the future King of the Jews. Brian later grows up into an idealistic young man who resents the continuing Roman occupation of Judea. While listening to Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, Brian becomes infatuated with an attractive young rebel, Judith. His desire for her and hatred of the Romans, further exaggerated by his mother revealing Brian himself is half-Roman, inspire him to join the "People's Front of Judea" (PFJ), one of many fractious and bickering independence movements which spend more time fighting each other than they do with the Romans.

To prove himself, Brian is tasked by the PFJ to paint slogans on Roman governor Pontius Pilate's palace, but is interrupted by a Roman officer. The officer, however, is more concerned with Brian's appalling grammar and, after correcting the slogan, orders him to write it repeatedly. The next morning, Brian has finished writing out the slogan one hundred times and is chased away by the Romans. Then Brian participates in an abortive attempt by the PFJ to kidnap Pilate's wife but is captured by the palace guards.

Escaping when the guards suffer paroxysms of laughter over Pilate's speech impediment, Brian winds up trying to blend in among prophets preaching in a busy plaza, repeating fragments of Jesus' sermons. He stops his sermon mid-sentence when some Roman soldiers depart, leaving his small but intrigued audience demanding to know more. Brian grows frantic when people start following him to the mountains, and there they declare him to be the Messiah. After spending a night in with Judith, Brian, still naked, discovers an enormous crowd assembled outside his mother's house. Her attempts at dispersing the crowd are rebuffed, so she consents to Brian addressing them. He urges them to think for themselves, but they parrot his words as doctrine.

The PFJ seeks to exploit Brian's celebrity status by having him minister to a thronging crowd of followers demanding miracle cures. Brian sneaks out the back, only to be captured by the Romans and is sentenced to crucifixion. In celebration of Passover, a crowd has assembled outside the palace of Pilate, who offers to pardon a prisoner of their choice. The crowd shouts out names containing the letter "r", mocking Pilate's rhotacistic speech impediment. Eventually, Judith appears in the crowd and calls for the release of Brian, which the crowd echoes, and Pilate agrees to "welease Bwian".

His order is eventually relayed to the guards, but in a scene that parodies the climax of the film ''Spartacus'', various crucified people all claim to be "Brian" so they can be freed and the wrong man is released. Other opportunities for a reprieve for Brian are denied as the PFJ and then Judith praise his martyrdom, while his mother expresses regret for having raised him. Hope is renewed when a crack suicide squad from the "Judean People's Front" charges and prompts the Roman soldiers to flee; however, the squad commits mass suicide as a form of political protest. Condemned to a slow and painful death, Brian finds his spirits lifted by his fellow sufferers, who cheerfully sing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."

La Jetée

A man (Davos Hanich) is a prisoner in the aftermath of World War III in post-apocalyptic Paris, where survivors live underground in the ''Palais de Chaillot'' galleries. Scientists research time travel, hoping to send test subjects to different time periods "to call past and future to the rescue of the present." They have difficulty finding subjects who can mentally withstand the shock of time travel. The scientists eventually settle upon the protagonist; his key to the past is a vague but obsessive memory from his pre-war childhood of a woman (Hélène Châtelain) he had seen on the observation platform ("the jetty") at Orly Airport shortly before witnessing a startling incident there. He did not understand exactly what happened, but knew he had seen a man die.

After several attempts, he reaches the pre-war period. He meets the woman from his memory, and they develop a romantic relationship. After his successful passages to the past, the experimenters attempt to send him into the far future. In a brief meeting with the technologically advanced people of the future, he is given a power unit sufficient to regenerate his own destroyed society.

Upon his return, with his mission accomplished, he discerns that he is to be executed by his jailers. He is contacted by the people of the future, who offer to help him escape to their time permanently; but he asks instead to be returned to the pre-war time of his childhood, hoping to find the woman again. He is returned to the past, placed on the jetty at the airport, and it occurs to him that the child version of himself is probably also there at the same time. He is more concerned with locating the woman, and quickly spots her. However, as he rushes to her, he notices an agent of his jailers who has followed him and realizes the agent is about to kill him. In his final moments, he comes to understand that the incident he witnessed as a child, which has haunted him ever since, was his own death.

Leaf by Niggle

In this story, an artist, named Niggle, lives in a society that does not value art. Working only to please himself, he paints a canvas of a great Tree with a forest in the distance. He invests each and every leaf of his tree with obsessive attention to detail, making every leaf uniquely beautiful. Niggle ends up discarding all his other artworks, or tacks them onto the main canvas, which becomes a single vast embodiment of his vision.

However, there are many mundane chores and duties that prevent Niggle from giving his work the attention it deserves, so it remains incomplete and is not fully realised.

At the back of his head, Niggle knows that he has a great trip looming, and he must pack and prepare his bags.

Also, Niggle's next door neighbour, a gardener named Parish, frequently drops by asking for various forms of help. Parish is lame and has a sick wife and genuinely needs help. Niggle, having a good heart, takes time out to help—but he is also reluctant because he would rather work on his painting. Niggle has other pressing work duties as well that require his attention. Then Niggle himself catches a chill doing errands for Parish in the rain.

Eventually, Niggle is forced to take his trip, and cannot get out of it. He has not prepared, and as a result ends up in a kind of institution, in which he must perform menial labour each day. Back at the home to which he cannot return, Niggle's painting is abandoned, used to patch a damaged roof, and all but destroyed (except for the one perfect leaf of the story's title, which is placed in the local museum).

In time, Niggle is paroled from the institution, and he is sent to a place "for a little gentle treatment". He discovers that this new place is the country of the Tree and Forest of his great painting. This place is the true realisation of his vision, not the flawed and incomplete version in his painting.

Niggle is reunited with his old neighbour, Parish, who now proves his worth as a gardener, and together they make the Tree and Forest even more beautiful. Finally, Niggle journeys farther and deeper into the Forest, and beyond into the great Mountains that he only faintly glimpsed in his painting.

Long after both Niggle and Parish have taken their journeys, the lovely place that they created together becomes a destination for many travelers to visit before their final voyage into the Mountains, and it earns the name "Niggle's Parish".

Macbeth

### Act I

Amid thunder and lightning, Three Witches decide that their next meeting will be with Macbeth. In the following scene, a wounded sergeant reports to King Duncan of Scotland that his generals Banquo and Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, have just defeated the allied forces of Norway and Ireland, who were led by the traitorous Macdonwald, the Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth, the King's kinsman, is praised for his bravery and fighting prowess.

In the following scene, Macbeth and Banquo discuss the weather and their victory. As they wander onto a heath, the Three Witches enter and greet them with prophecies. Though Banquo challenges them first, they address Macbeth, hailing him as "Thane of Glamis," "Thane of Cawdor," and that he will "be King hereafter". Macbeth appears to be stunned to silence. When Banquo asks of his own fortunes, the witches respond paradoxically, saying that he will be less than Macbeth, yet happier, and less successful, yet more. He will father a line of kings, though he himself will ''not'' be one. While the two men wonder at these pronouncements, the witches vanish, and another thane, Ross, arrives and informs Macbeth of his newly bestowed title: Thane of Cawdor. The first prophecy is thus fulfilled, and Macbeth, previously sceptical, immediately begins to harbour ambitions of becoming king.

King Duncan welcomes and praises Macbeth and Banquo, and Duncan declares that he will spend the night at Macbeth's castle at Inverness; Duncan also names his son Malcolm as his heir. Macbeth sends a message ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her about the witches' prophecies. Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husband's uncertainty and wishes him to murder Duncan in order to obtain kingship. When Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she overrides all of her husband's objections by challenging his manhood and successfully persuades him to kill the king that very night. He and Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncan's two chamberlains drunk so that they will black out; the next morning they will blame the chamberlains for the murder. Since the chamberlains would remember nothing whatsoever, they would be blamed for the deed.

### Act II

While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts and a number of supernatural portents, including a hallucination of a bloody dagger. He is so shaken that Lady Macbeth has to take charge. In accordance with her plan, she frames Duncan's sleeping servants for the murder by placing bloody daggers on them. Early the next morning, Lennox, a Scottish nobleman, and Macduff, the loyal Thane of Fife, arrive. A porter opens the gate and Macbeth leads them to the king's chamber, where Macduff discovers Duncan's body. Macbeth murders the guards to prevent them from professing their innocence, but claims he did so in a fit of anger over their misdeeds. Duncan's sons Malcolm and Donalbain flee to England and Ireland, respectively, fearing that whoever killed Duncan desires their demise as well. The rightful heirs' flight makes them suspects and Macbeth assumes the throne as the new King of Scotland as a kinsman of the dead king. Banquo reveals this to the audience, and while sceptical of the new King Macbeth, he remembers the witches' prophecy about how his own descendants would inherit the throne; this makes him suspicious of Macbeth.

### Act III

Despite his success, Macbeth, also aware of this part of the prophecy, remains uneasy. Macbeth invites Banquo to a royal banquet, where he discovers that Banquo and his young son, Fleance, will be riding out that night. Fearing Banquo's suspicions, Macbeth arranges to have him murdered, by hiring two men to kill them, later sending a Third Murderer, presumably to ensure that the deed is completed. The assassins succeed in killing Banquo, but Fleance escapes. Macbeth becomes furious: he fears that his power remains insecure as long as an heir of Banquo remains alive.

At the banquet, Macbeth invites his lords and Lady Macbeth to a night of drinking and merriment. Banquo's ghost enters and sits in Macbeth's place. Macbeth raves fearfully, startling his guests, as the ghost is visible only to him. The others panic at the sight of Macbeth raging at an empty chair, until a desperate Lady Macbeth tells them that her husband is merely afflicted with a familiar and harmless malady. The ghost departs and returns once more, causing the same riotous anger and fear in Macbeth. This time, Lady Macbeth tells the visitors to leave, and they do so. At the end Hecate scolds the three weird sisters for helping Macbeth, especially without consulting her. Hecate Instructs the Witches to give Macbeth false security. Note that some scholars believe the Hecate scene was added in later.

### Act IV

Macbeth, disturbed, visits the three witches once more and asks them to reveal the truth of their prophecies to him. To answer his questions, they summon horrible apparitions, each of which offers predictions and further prophecies to put Macbeth's fears at rest. First, they conjure an armoured head, which tells him to beware of Macduff (IV.i.72). Second, a bloody child tells him that no one born of a woman will be able to harm him. Thirdly, a crowned child holding a tree states that Macbeth will be safe until Great Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill. Macbeth is relieved and feels secure because he knows that all men are born of women and forests cannot possibly move.

Macbeth also asks whether Banquo's sons will ever reign in Scotland, to which the witches conjure a procession of eight crowned kings, all similar in appearance to Banquo, and the last carrying a mirror that reflects even ''more'' kings. Macbeth realises that these are all Banquo's descendants having acquired kingship in numerous countries.

After the witches perform a mad dance and leave, Lennox enters and tells Macbeth that Macduff has fled to England. Macbeth orders Macduff's castle be seized, and, most cruelly, sends murderers to slaughter Macduff, as well as Macduff's wife and children. Although Macduff is no longer in the castle, everyone in Macduff's castle is put to death, including Lady Macduff and their young son.

### Act V

Lady Macbeth becomes racked with guilt from the crimes she and her husband have committed. At night, in the king's palace at Dunsinane, a doctor and a gentlewoman discuss Lady Macbeth's strange habit of sleepwalking. Suddenly, Lady Macbeth enters in a trance with a candle in her hand. Bemoaning the murders of Duncan, Lady Macduff, and Banquo, she tries to wash off imaginary bloodstains from her hands, all the while speaking of the terrible things she knows she pressed her husband to do. She leaves, and the doctor and gentlewoman marvel at her descent into madness.

In England, Macduff is informed by Ross that his "castle is surprised; wife and babes / Savagely slaughter'd" (IV.iii.204–205). When this news of his family's execution reaches him, Macduff is stricken with grief and vows revenge. Prince Malcolm, Duncan's son, has succeeded in raising an army in England, and Macduff joins him as he rides to Scotland to challenge Macbeth's forces. The invasion has the support of the Scottish nobles, who are appalled and frightened by Macbeth's tyrannical and murderous behaviour. Malcolm leads an army, along with Macduff and Englishmen Siward (the Elder), the Earl of Northumberland, against Dunsinane Castle. While encamped in Birnam Wood, the soldiers are ordered to cut down and carry tree branches to camouflage their numbers.

Before Macbeth's opponents arrive, he receives news that Lady Macbeth has killed herself, causing him to sink into a deep and pessimistic despair and deliver his "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow" soliloquy (V.v.17–28). Though he reflects on the brevity and meaninglessness of life, he nevertheless awaits the English and fortifies Dunsinane. He is certain that the witches' prophecies guarantee his invincibility, but is struck with fear when he learns that the English army is advancing on Dunsinane shielded with boughs cut from Birnam Wood, in apparent fulfillment of one of the prophecies.

A battle culminates in Macduff's confrontation with Macbeth, who kills Young Siward in combat. The English forces overwhelm his army and castle. Macbeth boasts that he has no reason to fear Macduff, for he cannot be killed by any man born of woman. Macduff declares that he was "from his mother's womb / Untimely ripp'd" (V.8.15–16), (i.e., born by Caesarean section and not a natural birth) and is not "of woman born", fulfilling the second prophecy. Macbeth realises too late that he has misinterpreted the witches' words. Though he realises that he is doomed, and despite Macduff urging him to yield, he is unwilling to surrender and continues fighting. Macduff kills and beheads him, thus fulfilling the remaining prophecy.

Macduff carries Macbeth's head onstage and Malcolm discusses how order has been restored. His last reference to Lady Macbeth, however, reveals tis thought, by self and violent hands / Took off her life" (V.ix.71–72), but the method of her suicide is undisclosed. Malcolm, now the King of Scotland, declares his benevolent intentions for the country and invites all to see him crowned at Scone.

(Although Malcolm, and ''not'' Fleance, is placed on the throne, the witches' prophecy concerning Banquo ("Thou shalt get kings") was known to the audience of Shakespeare's time to be true: James VI of Scotland (later also James I of England) was supposedly a descendant of Banquo. )

Mean Streets

Charlie, a young Italian-American man in New York's Little Italy, is hampered by his feeling of responsibility towards his reckless younger friend Johnny Boy, a small-time gambler and ne'er-do-well who refuses to work and owes money to many loan sharks. Charlie is also having a secret affair with Johnny's cousin Teresa, who has epilepsy and is ostracized because of her condition—especially by Charlie's Uncle Giovanni, a powerful ''mafioso''. Giovanni wants Charlie to distance himself from Johnny, saying "honorable men go with honorable men."

Charlie is torn between his devout Catholicism and his illicit Mafia work for Giovanni. Johnny becomes increasingly self-destructive and disrespectful of his Mafia-connected creditors. Failing to receive redemption in the Church, Charlie seeks it through sacrificing himself on Johnny's behalf. At a bar, a loan shark named Michael comes looking for Johnny to pay up. To his surprise, Johnny insults him. Michael lunges at Johnny, who pulls a gun. After a tense standoff, Michael walks away and Charlie convinces Johnny that they should leave town for a brief period. Teresa insists on coming with them. Charlie borrows a car and they drive off, leaving the neighborhood without incident.

A car that has been following them suddenly pulls up, with Michael at the wheel and his henchman, Jimmy Shorts, in the backseat. Jimmy fires several shots at Charlie's car, hitting Johnny in the neck and Charlie in the hand, causing Charlie to crash the car into a fire hydrant. Johnny is seen in an alleyway staggering toward a white light which is revealed to be a police car. Charlie gets out of the crashed vehicle and kneels in the spurting water from the hydrant, dazed and bleeding. Paramedics take Teresa and Charlie away. Johnny's fate remains unknown.

Microserfs

The plot of the novel has two distinct movements: the events at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, and the move to Silicon Valley and the "Oop!" project.

The novel begins in Redmond as the characters are working on different projects at Microsoft's main campus. Life at the campus feels like a feudalistic society, with Bill Gates as the lord, and the employees the serfs. The majority of the main characters—Daniel (the narrator), Susan, Todd, Bug, Michael, and Abe—are living together in a "geek house", and their lives are dedicated to their projects and the company. Daniel's foundations are shaken when his father, a longtime employee of IBM, is laid off. The lifespan of a Microsoft coder weighs heavily on Daniel's mind.

The second movement of the novel begins when the characters are offered jobs in Silicon Valley working on a project for Michael, who has by then left Redmond. All of the housemates—some immediately, some after thought—decide to move to the Valley.

The characters' lives change drastically once they leave the limited sphere of the Microsoft campus and enter the world of "One-Point-Oh". They begin to work on a project called "Oop!" (a reference to object-oriented programming). Oop! is a Lego-like design program, allowing dynamic creation of many objects, bearing a resemblance to 2009's ''Minecraft'' (Coupland appears on the rear cover of the novel's hardcover editions photographed in Denmark's Legoland Billund, holding a Lego 777.).

One of the undercurrents of the plot is Daniel and his family's relationship to Jed, Daniel's younger brother who died in a boating accident while they were children.

My Fair Lady

### Act I

In Edwardian London, Eliza Doolittle is a flower girl with a thick Cockney accent. The noted phonetician Professor Henry Higgins encounters Eliza at Covent Garden and laments the vulgarity of her dialect ("Why Can't the English?"). Higgins also meets Colonel Pickering, another linguist, and invites him to stay as his houseguest. Eliza and her friends wonder what it would be like to live a comfortable life ("Wouldn't It Be Loverly?").

Eliza's father, Alfred P. Doolittle, stops by the next morning searching for money for a drink ("With a Little Bit of Luck"). Soon after, Eliza comes to Higgins's house, seeking elocution lessons so that she can get a job as an assistant in a florist's shop. Higgins wagers Pickering that, within six months, by teaching Eliza to speak properly, he will enable her to pass for a proper lady.

Eliza becomes part of Higgins's household. Though Higgins sees himself as a kindhearted man who merely cannot get along with women ("I'm an Ordinary Man"), to others he appears self-absorbed and misogynistic. Eliza endures Higgins's tyrannical speech tutoring. Frustrated, she dreams of different ways to kill him ("Just You Wait"). Higgins's servants lament the stressful atmosphere ("The Servants' Chorus").

Just as Higgins is about to give up on her, Eliza suddenly recites one of her diction exercises in perfect upper-class style ("The Rain in Spain"). Though Mrs Pearce, the housekeeper, insists that Eliza go to bed, she declares she is too excited to sleep ("I Could Have Danced All Night").

For her first public tryout, Higgins takes Eliza to his mother's box at Ascot Racecourse ("Ascot Gavotte"). Though Eliza shocks everyone when she forgets herself while watching a race and reverts to foul language, she does capture the heart of Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Freddy calls on Eliza that evening, and he declares that he will wait for her in the street outside Higgins' house ("On the Street Where You Live").

Eliza's final test requires her to pass as a lady at the Embassy Ball. After more weeks of preparation, she is ready. ("Eliza's Entrance")

### Act II

All the ladies and gentlemen at the ball admire her, and the Queen of Transylvania invites her to dance with the prince ("Embassy Waltz"). A Hungarian phonetician, Zoltan Karpathy, attempts to discover Eliza's origins. Higgins allows Karpathy to dance with Eliza.

The ball is a success; Karpathy has declared Eliza to be a Hungarian princess. Pickering and Higgins revel in their triumph ("You Did It"), failing to pay attention to Eliza. Eliza is insulted at receiving no credit for her success, packing up and leaving the Higgins house. As she leaves she finds Freddy, who begins to tell her how much he loves her, but she tells him that she has heard enough words; if he really loves her, he should show it ("Show Me").

Eliza and Freddy return to Covent Garden but she finds she no longer feels at home there. Her father is there as well, and he tells her that he has received a surprise bequest from an American millionaire, which has raised him to middle-class respectability, and now must marry his lover. Doolittle and his friends have one last spree before the wedding ("Get Me to the Church on Time").

Higgins awakens the next morning. He finds himself out of sorts without Eliza. He wonders why she left after the triumph at the ball and concludes that men (especially himself) are far superior to women ("A Hymn to Him"). Pickering notices the Professor's lack of consideration, and also leaves the Higgins house.

Higgins despondently visits his mother's house, where he finds Eliza. Eliza declares she no longer needs Higgins ("Without You"). As Higgins walks home, he realizes he's grown attached to Eliza ("I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face"). At home, he sentimentally reviews the recording he made the day Eliza first came to him for lessons, hearing his own harsh words. Eliza suddenly appears in his home. In suppressed joy at their reunion, Professor Higgins scoffs and asks, "Eliza, where the devil are my slippers?"

Spam (Monty Python)

sketch "Spam"

The three-and-a-half-minute sketch is set in the fictional Green Midget Cafe in Bromley. An argument develops between the waitress, who recites a menu in which nearly every dish contains Spam, and Mrs. Bun, who does not like Spam. She asks for a dish without Spam, much to the amazement of her Spam-loving husband. The waitress responds to this request with disgust. Mr. Bun offers to take her Spam instead, and asks for a dish containing a lot of Spam and baked beans. The waitress says the beans are not available; when Mr. Bun asks for a substitution of Spam, the waitress begins reading out the new dish's name.

At several points, a group of Vikings in the restaurant interrupt conversations by loudly singing about Spam. The irate waitress orders them to shut up, but they resume singing more loudly. A Hungarian tourist comes to the counter, trying to order by using a wholly inaccurate Hungarian/English phrasebook (a reference to a previous sketch). He is rapidly escorted away by a police constable.

The sketch abruptly cuts to a historian in a television studio talking about the origin of the Vikings in the café. As he goes on, he begins to increasingly insert the word "Spam" into every sentence, and the backdrop is raised to reveal the restaurant set behind. The historian joins the Vikings in their song, and Mr. and Mrs. Bun are lifted by wires out of the scene while the singing continues. In the original televised performance, the closing credits begin to scroll with the singing still audible in the background.

Dead Parrot sketch

Mr Praline (Cleese) enters the pet shop to register a complaint about the dead Norwegian Blue parrot (parrots are not endemic to Norway) just as the shopkeeper (Palin) is preparing to close the establishment for lunch. Despite being told that the bird is deceased and that it had been nailed to its perch, the proprietor insists that it is "pining for the fjords" or simply "stunned".''All the Words: Volume One''. pp. 104–106.

As the exasperated Praline attempts to wake up the parrot, the shopkeeper tries to make the bird move by hitting the cage, and Praline erupts into a rage after banging "Polly Parrot" on the counter. After listing several euphemisms for death ("is no more", "has ceased to be", "bereft of life, it rests in peace", and "this is an ex-parrot") he is told to go to the pet shop run by the shopkeeper's brother in Bolton for a refund. That proves difficult, as the proprietor of that store (who is really the shopkeeper, save for a fake moustache) claims this is Ipswich, whereas the railway station attendant (Terry Jones) claims he is actually in Bolton after all.

Confronting the shopkeeper's "brother" for lying, the shopkeeper claims he was playing a prank on Praline by sending him to Ipswich, which was a palindrome for Bolton; Praline points out that the shopkeeper was wrong because a palindrome for Bolton would have been "Notlob".

Just as Praline has decided that "this is getting too silly", Graham Chapman's no-nonsense Colonel bursts in and orders the sketch stopped.

The Spanish Inquisition (Monty Python)

This recurring sketch is predicated on a seemingly unrelated narrative bit in which one character mentions that they "didn't expect a Spanish Inquisition!", often in irritation at being questioned by another. The first appearance of the Spanish Inquisition characters occurs in a drawing room set in "Jarrow, 1912," with a title card featuring a modern British urban area with a nuclear power plant. A mill worker (Graham Chapman) enters the room and tells a woman sitting on a couch knitting (Carol Cleveland) in a thick accent that "one of the cross beams has gone out askew on the treadle". When the woman says that she can't understand what he's talking about, the mill worker repeats the line, this time ''without'' the thick accent, then grows defensive and says, "I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition!" Suddenly, the Inquisition consisting of Cardinal Ximénez (Michael Palin) and his assistants, Cardinal Biggles (Terry Jones) (who resembles his namesake Biggles wearing a leather aviator's helmet and goggles) and Cardinal Fang (Terry Gilliam) burst into the room to the sound of a jarring musical sting. Ximénez shouts, with a particular and high-pitched emphasis on the first word: "NO-body expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

After entering, Ximénez begins enumerating their weapons ("fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, nice red uniforms"), but interrupts himself as he keeps forgetting to mention additional weapons and has to begin numbering his list over again. After several attempts, Ximénez states that he will come in again, and herds the Inquisition back off the set. The straight man mill worker repeats the cue line, the Inquisition bursts back in (complete with jarring chord), and the introduction is tried anew. But Ximénez fails again and tries to get Cardinal Biggles to do the introduction, but Biggles is also unsuccessful.

Ximénez decides to forget the introduction and has Cardinal Fang read out charges of heresy against the woman. The woman pleads "innocent", and the cardinals respond with laughter (as an on-screen caption reads "DIABOLICAL LAUGHTER") and threats (as the on-screen caption changes to "DIABOLICAL ACTING"). Ximénez intends to torture the woman with "the rack", but Cardinal Biggles instead produces a dish-drying rack. This rack is tied to the woman and Biggles pretends to turn a lever, but it has no effect whatsoever. As they work, the mill worker answers the door to find a BBC employee (John Cleese) requesting him to open a door for a gag on "the neighboring sketch", leading into the "Jokes and Novelties Salesman" segment.

The Inquisition returns in a later sketch as an older woman (Marjorie Wilde) shares photographs from a scrapbook with another woman (Cleveland), who rips them up as they are handed to her. When the older woman presents a photo of the Spanish Inquisition hiding behind the coal shed, the other woman says, "I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!" The three cardinals then reappear and take the older woman away to a dungeon.

Biggles tries to torture the woman by poking her repeatedly with soft cushions. When this fails, Ximénez orders Fang to get "the comfy chair", which is brought out and the woman placed in it. Ximénez states that she must stay in the chair "until lunch time with only a cup of coffee at 11", and begins to shout at her to confess only to have Biggles break down and confess. This frustrates Ximénez, but he cannot complain about it since he is distracted by a cartoon character from the next scene.

At the end of the show, in the "Court Charades" sketch, a judge (Jones) who is also a defendant in an obscenity trial at the Old Bailey is casually sentenced by another judge (Chapman) to be burned at the stake. The convicted judge responds, "Blimey, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!" The whole court rises and looks expectantly at the witness entrance door. As the closing credits of the episode begin, the Inquisitors race out of a house and hop on a double-decker bus to the Old Bailey, all to the tune of "Devil's Galop". As the Inquisitors ride in the bus, they comment worriedly that they are running out of credits (which are seen superimposed over them) and are panicked that the episode will soon end. The bus reaches the courthouse and the cardinals charge up the steps of the Old Bailey. They finally burst into the courtroom and Ximénez begins to shout, "NO-body expects the Span...," but a black title card with the words, "THE END", interrupts him. In resignation, he says, "Oh, bugger", and the episode concludes.

In the ''Monty Python Live (Mostly)'' stage show, the sketch ends when Ximénez orders Biggles to "torture" the victim (who is sitting in the comfy chair) by giving her a glass of cold milk from the fridge. When Biggles opens the door, the Man in the Fridge (Eric Idle) emerges and begins singing the "Galaxy Song" to the victim, while the Inquisition exit through the fridge.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

In AD 932, King Arthur and his squire, Patsy, travel Britain searching for men to join the Knights of the Round Table. Along the way, Arthur debates whether swallows could carry coconuts, passes through a town infected with the Black Death, recounts receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake to two anarcho-syndicalist peasants, defeats the Black Knight and observes an impromptu witch trial. He recruits Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Galahad the Pure, and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir-Lancelot, along with their squires and Robin's minstrels. Arthur leads the knights to Camelot, but, after a musical number, changes his mind, deeming it "a silly place". As they turn away, God appears and orders Arthur to find the Holy Grail.

Arthur and his knights arrive at a castle occupied by French soldiers, who claim to have the Grail and taunt the Britons, driving them back with a barrage of barnyard animals. Bedevere concocts a plan to sneak in using a Trojan Rabbit, but no one hides inside it, and the Britons are forced to flee when it is flung back at them. Arthur decides the knights should go their separate ways to search for the Grail. A modern-day historian filming a documentary on the Arthurian legends is killed by an unknown knight on horseback, triggering a police investigation.

On the knights' travels, Arthur and Bedevere are given directions by an old man and attempt to satisfy the strange requests of the dreaded Knights Who Say "Ni!". Sir Robin avoids a fight with a Three-Headed Knight by running away while the heads are arguing. Sir Galahad is led by a grail-shaped beacon to Castle Anthrax, which is full of young women, but is unwillingly "rescued" by Lancelot. Lancelot receives an arrow-shot note from Swamp Castle. Believing the note is from a lady being forced to marry against her will, he storms the castle and slaughters several members of the wedding party, only to discover the note was from an effeminate prince.

Arthur and his knights regroup and are joined by three new knights, as well as Brother Maynard and his monk brethren. They meet Tim the Enchanter, who directs them to a cave where the location of the Grail is said to be written. The entrance to the cave is guarded by the Rabbit of Caerbannog. Underestimating it, the knights attack, but the Rabbit easily kills Sirs Bors, Gawain and Ector. Arthur uses the "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch", provided by Brother Maynard, to destroy the creature. Inside the cave, they find an inscription from Joseph of Arimathea, directing them to Castle Aarrgh.

An animated cave monster devours Brother Maynard, but Arthur and the knights escape after the animator unexpectedly suffers a fatal heart attack. The knights approach the Bridge of Death, where the bridge-keeper challenges them to answer three questions to pass, or else be cast into the Gorge of Eternal Peril. Lancelot easily answers the simple questions and crosses. Robin is defeated by an unexpectedly difficult question, and Galahad fails an easy one; both are magically flung into the gorge. When the bridge-keeper poses an obscure question about swallows to Arthur, he asks the bridge-keeper to clarify what he means; the bridge-keeper cannot answer and is thrown into the gorge.

Arthur and Bedevere cannot find Lancelot, unaware that he has been arrested by police investigating the historian's death. The pair reach Castle Aarrgh, but find it occupied by the French soldiers. After being repelled by showers of manure, they summon an army of knights and prepare to assault the castle. As the army charges, the police arrive, arrest Arthur and Bedevere and break the camera, ending the film.

Miss Congeniality (film)

In 1982, a very young Gracie Hart steps into a playground fight to beat up a bully who is threatening a boy she likes. However, the boy feels humiliated at being rescued "by a girl", and rejects her rudely, whereupon she punches him in the nose and leaves to sulk alone. Years later, Gracie is now a tough Special Agent for the FBI. During a sting operation against Russian mobsters, she disobeys her superior's orders in order to save a mob boss who appears to be choking, which causes one of the other agents to be shot. She is demoted to a desk job as punishment.

Soon after, the agency is alerted, via a letter from the notorious domestic terrorist known only as "The Citizen", to a bomb threat at the upcoming 75th annual Miss United States beauty pageant in San Antonio, Texas. Gracie's partner Eric Matthews is put in charge, and he relies on Gracie's suggestions, but he takes credit for them himself. One of Gracie's ideas is to plant an agent undercover at the event and reach the top 5 so they have access to everything in the peagant.When all possible candidates are deemed unfit, Eric then suggests that Gracie take on that role, replacing Miss New Jersey, who was to be disqualified. Beauty pageant coach Victor Melling teaches Gracie how to dress, walk, and behave like a contestant. Victor helped her with a million dollar makeover that helped her blend with the contestants. Though initially appalled, she comes to appreciate Victor's thoroughness. Gracie enters the pageant as "Gracie Lou Freebush", representing New Jersey, and becomes friends with Cheryl Frasier, who is Miss Rhode Island. As the competition begins, Gracie impresses the judges during the talent competition with her glass harp skills and self-defense techniques.

Several suspects are identified, including the current competition director and former pageant winner Kathy Morningside, her assistant Frank Tobin, the veteran MC Stan Fields, and Cheryl, who has a history of being a radical animal rights activist. Gracie accompanies Cheryl and other contestants as they spend a night partying, where Gracie tries to dig into Cheryl's past, but inadvertently learns from the others that Kathy's past as a pageant contestant is suspect, including the fact that she won after the leading contestant suddenly came down with food poisoning. Gracie comes to believe Kathy is a "Citizen" copycat. When Gracie reports this to Eric and the team, she learns that "The Citizen" has been arrested on an unrelated charge, and because there is no further threat, their supervisor has pulled the mission. Gracie insists that she suspects something is wrong, and Eric returns to Texas to help her continue the investigation against orders.

In the final round, Gracie is stunned when she is named first runner-up. Cheryl is named Miss United States, but as she goes to accept the tiara, Gracie realizes that Frank, who is actually Kathy's son, impersonated "The Citizen" to make the pageant bomb threat. She throws the tiara up at the stage scenery, where it explodes and sets the stage on fire. As Kathy and Frank are arrested, Gracie determines that the two wanted to kill the pageant winner on stage as revenge for Kathy's termination from the Miss United States organization. As the event closes down and Gracie and Eric prepare to return to headquarters with a new-found interest in each other, the other contestants name Gracie "Miss Congeniality".

Moby-Dick

Ishmael travels in December from Manhattan Island to New Bedford, Massachusetts, with plans to sign up for a whaling voyage. The inn where he arrives is overcrowded, so he must share a bed with the tattooed cannibal Polynesian Queequeg, a harpooneer whose father was king of the fictional island of Rokovoko. The next morning, Ishmael and Queequeg attend Father Mapple's sermon on Jonah, then head for Nantucket. Ishmael signs up with the Quaker ship-owners Bildad and Peleg for a voyage on their whaler ''Pequod''. Peleg describes Captain Ahab: "He's a grand, ungodly, god-like man" who nevertheless "has his humanities". They hire Queequeg the following morning. A man named Elijah prophesies a dire fate should Ishmael and Queequeg join Ahab. While provisions are loaded, shadowy figures board the ship. On a cold Christmas Day, the ''Pequod'' leaves the harbor.

Ishmael discusses cetology (the zoological classification and natural history of the whale), and describes the crew members. The chief mate is 30-year-old Starbuck, a Nantucket Quaker with a realist mentality, whose harpooneer is Queequeg; second mate is Stubb, from Cape Cod, happy-go-lucky and cheerful, whose harpooneer is Tashtego, a proud, pure-blooded Indian from Gay Head; and the third mate is Flask, also from Martha's Vineyard, short, stout, whose harpooneer is Daggoo, a tall African, now a resident of Nantucket.

When Ahab finally appears on the quarterdeck, he announces he is out for revenge on the white whale which took one leg from the knee down and left him with a prosthesis fashioned from a whale's jawbone. Ahab will give the first man to sight Moby Dick a doubloon, a gold coin, which he nails to the mast. Starbuck objects that he has not come for vengeance but for profit. Ahab's purpose exercises a mysterious spell on Ishmael: "Ahab's quenchless feud seemed mine". Instead of rounding Cape Horn, Ahab heads for the equatorial Pacific Ocean via southern Africa. One afternoon, as Ishmael and Queequeg are weaving a mat—"its warp seemed necessity, his hand free will, and Queequeg's sword chance"—Tashtego sights a sperm whale. Five previously unknown men appear on deck and are revealed to be a special crew selected by Ahab and explain the shadowy figures seen boarding the ship. Their leader, Fedallah, a Parsee, is Ahab's harpooneer. The pursuit is unsuccessful.

Southeast of the Cape of Good Hope, the ''Pequod'' makes the first of nine sea-encounters, or "gams", with other ships: Ahab hails the ''Goney'' (Albatross) to ask whether they have seen the White Whale, but the trumpet through which her captain tries to speak falls into the sea before he can answer. Ishmael explains that because of Ahab's absorption with Moby Dick, he sails on without the customary "gam", which Ishmael defines as a "social meeting of two (or more) Whale-ships", in which the two captains remain on one ship and the chief mates on the other. In the second gam off the Cape of Good Hope, with the ''Town-Ho'', a Nantucket whaler, the concealed story of a "judgment of God" is revealed, but only to the crew: a defiant sailor who struck an oppressive officer is flogged, and when that officer led the chase for Moby Dick, he fell from the boat and was killed by the whale.

Ishmael digresses on pictures of whales, brit (microscopic sea creatures on which whales feed), squid and—after four boats are lowered in vain because Daggoo mistook a giant squid for the white whale—whale-lines. The next day, in the Indian Ocean, Stubb kills a sperm whale, and that night Fleece, the ''Pequod'' s black cook, prepares him a rare whale steak. Fleece, at Stubb's request, delivers a sermon to the sharks that fight each other to feast on the whale's carcass, tied to the ship, saying that their nature is to be voracious, but they must overcome it. The whale is prepared, beheaded, and barrels of oil are tried out. Standing at the head of the whale, Ahab begs it to speak of the depths of the sea. The ''Pequod'' next encounters the ''Jeroboam'', which not only lost its chief mate to Moby Dick, but also is now plagued by an epidemic.

The whale carcass still lies in the water. Queequeg mounts it, tied to Ishmael's belt by a monkey-rope as if they were Siamese twins. Stubb and Flask kill a right whale whose head is fastened to a yardarm opposite the sperm whale's head. Ishmael compares the two heads in a philosophical way: the right whale is Lockean, stoic, and the sperm whale is Kantean, platonic. Tashtego cuts into the head of the sperm whale and retrieves buckets of spermaceti. He falls into the head, which in turn falls off the yardarm into the sea. Queequeg dives after him and frees his mate with his sword.

The ''Pequod'' next gams with the ''Jungfrau'' from Bremen. Both ships sight whales simultaneously, with the ''Pequod'' winning the contest. The three harpooneers dart their harpoons, and Flask delivers the mortal strike with a lance. The carcass sinks, and Queequeg barely manages to escape. The ''Pequod'' s next gam is with the French whaler ''Bouton de Rose'', whose crew is ignorant of the ambergris in the gut of the diseased whale in their possession. Stubb talks them out of it, but Ahab orders him away before he can recover more than a few handfuls. Days later, Pip, a little African American cabin-boy, jumps in panic from Stubb's whale boat and the whale must be cut loose because Pip is entangled in the line; a few days later Pip jumps in panic again, and is left alone in the sea and has gone insane by the time he is picked up.

Cooled spermaceti congeals and must be squeezed back into liquid state; blubber is boiled in the try-pots on deck; the warm oil is decanted into casks, and then stowed in the ship. After the operation, the decks are scrubbed. The coin hammered to the main mast shows three Andes summits, one with a flame, one with a tower, and one a crowing cock. Ahab stops to look at the doubloon and interprets the coin as signs of his firmness, volcanic energy, and victory; Starbuck takes the high peaks as evidence of the Trinity; Stubb focuses on the zodiacal arch over the mountains; and Flask sees nothing of any symbolic value at all. The Manxman mutters in front of the mast, and Pip declines the verb "look".

The ''Pequod'' next gams with the ''Samuel Enderby'' of London, captained by Boomer, a down-to-earth fellow who lost his right arm to Moby Dick. Nevertheless, he carries no ill will toward the whale, which he regards not as malicious, but as awkward. Ahab puts an end to the gam by rushing back to his ship. The narrator now discusses the subjects of (1) whalers supply; (2) a glen in Tranque in the Arsacides islands full of carved whale bones, fossil whales, whale skeleton measurements; (3) the chance that the magnitude of the whale will diminish and that the leviathan might perish.

Leaving the ''Samuel Enderby'', Ahab wrenches his ivory leg and orders the carpenter to fashion him another. Starbuck informs Ahab of oil leakage in the hold. Reluctantly, Ahab orders the harpooneers to inspect the casks. Queequeg, sweating all day below decks, develops a chill and soon is almost mortally feverish. The carpenter makes a coffin for Queequeg, who fears an ordinary burial at sea. Queequeg tries it for size, with Pip sobbing and beating his tambourine, standing by and calling himself a coward while he praises Queequeg for his gameness. Yet Queequeg suddenly rallies, briefly convalesces, and leaps up, back in good health. Henceforth, he uses his coffin for a spare seachest, which is later caulked and pitched to replace the ''Pequod'' s life buoy.

The ''Pequod'' sails northeast toward Formosa and into the Pacific Ocean. Ahab, with one nostril, smells the musk from the Bashee isles, and with the other, the salt of the waters where Moby Dick swims. Ahab goes to Perth, the blacksmith, with a bag of racehorse shoenail stubs to be forged into the shank of a special harpoon, and with his razors for Perth to melt and fashion into a harpoon barb. Ahab tempers the barb in blood from Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo.

The ''Pequod'' gams next with the ''Bachelor'', a Nantucket ship heading home full of sperm oil. Every now and then, the ''Pequod'' lowers for whales with success. On one of those nights in the whaleboat, Fedallah prophesies that neither hearse nor coffin can be Ahab's, that before he dies, Ahab must see two hearses — one not made by mortal hands and the other made of American wood — that Fedallah will precede his captain in death, and finally that only hemp can kill Ahab.

As the ''Pequod'' approaches the Equator, Ahab scolds his quadrant for telling him only where he is and not where he will be. He dashes it to the deck. That evening, an impressive typhoon attacks the ship. Lightning strikes the mast, setting the doubloon and Ahab's harpoon aglow. Ahab delivers a speech on the spirit of fire, seeing the lightning as a portent of Moby Dick. Starbuck sees the lightning as a warning, and feels tempted to shoot the sleeping Ahab with a musket. The next morning, when he finds that the lightning disoriented the compass, Ahab makes a new one out of a lance, a maul, and a sailmaker's needle. He orders the log be heaved, but the weathered line snaps, leaving the ship with no way to fix its location.

The ''Pequod'' is now heading southeast toward Moby Dick. A man falls overboard from the mast. The life buoy is thrown, but both sink. Now Queequeg proposes that his superfluous coffin be used as a new life buoy. Starbuck orders the carpenter to seal and waterproof it. The next morning, the ship meets in another truncated gam with the ''Rachel'', commanded by Captain Gardiner from Nantucket. The ''Rachel'' is seeking survivors from one of her whaleboats which had gone after Moby Dick. Among the missing is Gardiner's young son. Ahab refuses to join the search.

Twenty-four hours a day, Ahab now stands and walks the deck, while Fedallah shadows him. Suddenly, a sea hawk grabs Ahab's slouched hat and flies off with it. Next, the ''Pequod'', in a ninth and final gam, meets the ''Delight'', badly damaged and with five of her crew left dead by Moby Dick. Her captain shouts that the harpoon which can kill the white whale has yet to be forged, but Ahab flourishes his special lance and once more orders the ship forward. Ahab shares a moment of contemplation with Starbuck. Ahab speaks about his wife and child, calls himself a fool for spending 40 years on whaling, and claims he can see his own child in Starbuck's eye. Starbuck tries to persuade Ahab to return to Nantucket to meet both their families, but Ahab simply crosses the deck and stands near Fedallah.

On the first day of the chase, Ahab smells the whale, climbs the mast, and sights Moby Dick. He claims the doubloon for himself, and orders all boats to lower except for Starbuck's. The whale bites Ahab's boat in two, tosses the captain out of it, and scatters the crew. On the second day of the chase, Ahab leaves Starbuck in charge of the ''Pequod''. Moby Dick smashes the three boats that seek him into splinters and tangles their lines. Ahab is rescued, but his ivory leg and Fedallah are lost. Starbuck begs Ahab to desist, but Ahab vows to slay the white whale, even if he would have to dive through the globe itself to get his revenge.

On the third day of the chase, Ahab sights Moby Dick at noon, and sharks appear, as well. Ahab lowers his boat for a final time, leaving Starbuck again on board. Moby Dick breaches and destroys two boats. Fedallah's corpse, still entangled in the fouled lines, is lashed to the whale's back, so Moby Dick turns out to be the hearse Fedallah prophesied.

"Possessed by all the fallen angels", Ahab plants his harpoon in the whale's flank. Moby Dick smites the whaleboat, tossing its men into the sea. Only Ishmael is unable to return to the boat. He is left behind in the sea, and so is the only crewman of the ''Pequod'' to survive the final encounter. The whale now fatally attacks the ''Pequod''. Ahab then realizes that the destroyed ship is the hearse made of American wood in Fedallah's prophecy.

Moby Dick returns "within a few yards of Ahab's boat," a harpoon is darted, the line gets tangled, and Ahab stoops to free it. In doing so the line loops around Ahab's neck, and as the stricken whale swims away, the captain is drawn with him out of sight. Queequeg's coffin comes to the surface, the only thing to escape the vortex when ''Pequod'' sank. For a day and a night, Ishmael floats on it, until the ''Rachel'', still looking for its lost seamen, rescues him.

Megatokyo

''Megatokyo'''s story begins when Piro and Largo fly to Tokyo after an incident at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Piro has the proper paperwork; Largo must beat the ninja Junpei at a video game to enter. After a spending spree, the pair are stranded without enough money to buy plane tickets home, forcing them to live with Tsubasa, a Japanese friend of Piro's. When Tsubasa suddenly departs for America to seek his "first true love", the protagonists are forced out of the apartment. Tsubasa leaves Ping, a robot girl PlayStation 2 accessory, in their care. This leads to old friends of Piro and Largo showing up later. The two are shadow operatives for video game companies, Ed (Sony) and Dom (SEGA).

At one point, Piro, confronted with girl troubles, visits the local bookstore to "research"—look in the vast shelves of shoujo manga for a solution to his problem. A spunky schoolgirl, Sonoda Yuki, and her friends, Asako and Mami, see him sitting amidst piles of read manga, and ask him what he is doing. Piro, flustered, runs away, accidentally leaving behind his bookbag and sketchbook.

After their eviction, Piro begins work at "Megagamers", a store specializing in anime, manga, and video games. His employer allows him and Largo to live in the apartment above the store. Largo is mistaken for the new English teacher at a local school, where he takes on the alias "Great Teacher Largo" and instructs his students in L33t, video games, and about computers. Yuki's father, Inspector Sonada Masamichi of the "Tokyo Police Cataclysm Division" (TPCD) hires Largo after Largo manipulates Ping into stopping a rampaging monster, the drunken turtle Gameru.

As Largo is working at the local high school, Piro encounters Yuki again while working at Megagamers, when she returns his bookbag and sketchbook, scribbled all over with comments about his drawings. She then, to his consternation, asks if he would give her drawing lessons. Piro, flustered, agrees, and promptly forgets about them.

Earlier in the story, Piro had seen Nanasawa Kimiko at an Anna Miller's restaurant, where she is a waitress, after Tsubasa brought him and Largo there. Later on, Piro encounters Kimiko outside a train station, where she is worrying aloud that she will miss an audition because she has forgotten her money and railcard. Piro hands her his own railcard and walks off before she can refuse his offer. This event causes Kimiko to develop an idealized vision of her benefactor, an image which is shattered the next time they meet. Despite this, she gradually develops feelings for Piro, though she is too shy to admit them. Later on in the story, Kimiko's outburst on a radio talk show causes her to suddenly rise to idol status. Angered by the hosts' derisive comments about fanboys, she comes to the defense of her audience, immediately and unintentionally securing their obsessive adoration. Later, her new horde of fanboys find out where she works and flock to the restaurant, obsessively trying to get pictures up her skirt. Piro works undercover as a busboy to get rid of all cameras. The scene eventually builds to a climax, in which Kimiko shouts at the fanboys and lifts her skirt in defiance, and they take photographs. Piro, provoked by her outburst into actively defending her, threatens the fanboy crowd, and collects all of their memory cards with the photos. On the way back from the restaurant, Kimiko is suffering from the aftermath of the scene and lashes out at Piro on the subway, which causes him to walk off.

Meanwhile, Largo develops a relationship with Hayasaka Erika, Piro's coworker at Megagamers. She and Kimiko share a house. As with Piro and Kimiko, Largo and Erika meet by coincidence early in the story. Later, it is revealed that Erika is a former pop idol, who caused a big scene then disappeared from the public eye after her fiancé left her. When she is rediscovered by her fans, Largo helps thwart a fanboy horde, but not well enough to escape being dismissed by the TPCD for it. He then offers to help Erika to deal with her "vulnerabilities in the digital plane". Erika insists on protecting herself, so Largo instructs her in computer-building. This leads into a little more relationship than Largo can handle, partly because he insists all computer building be done in the nude or as close to it as possible, to avoid static electrical discharge ruining components, and partly because his behavior, crude though it may appear, impresses Erika in many ways.

The enigmatic Tohya Miho frequently meddles in the lives of the protagonists. Miho knows Piro and Largo from the ''Endgames'' MMORPG previous to ''Megatokyo'''s plot. She abused a hidden statistic in the game to gain control of nearly all of the game's player characters, but was ultimately defeated by Piro and Largo. In the comic, Miho becomes close friends with Ping, influencing Ping's relationship with Piro and pitting Ping against Largo in video game battles. Miho is also involved in Erika's backstory; Miho manipulated Erika's fans after Erika's disappearance. This effort ended badly, leaving Miho hospitalized, and the TPCD cleaning up the aftermath. Most of the exact details of what happened are left to the readers' imagination, as are her current motivations and ultimate goal. Miho and many of the events surrounding her involve a club in Harajuku, the Cave of Evil (CoE).

After getting yelled at for retaining her waitress job, Kimiko quits her voice acting job and goes home to find Erika assembling a new computer in her undergarments. Not long after Erika tells Kimiko to strip, Piro comes by, who she tells to get undressed as well. While Erika and Piro talk about her, Kimiko, who hid when Piro showed up, runs out of the apartment. Kimiko runs into Ping, who wanted to talk to Piro about why, after an explosion at school, she had started to cry uncontrollably. They encounter Largo at the store, who explains what went wrong, although no one knows what he means until Piro comes in and translates. Ping is relieved to know that she won't shut down and Kimiko hugs Piro and apologizes for her actions. Largo leaves for Erika's apartment after she calls looking for help. That night, while Piro and Kimiko fall asleep watching TV, Erika, who finished the computer with Largo's help, tries to seduce Largo, but it freaks him out and he runs out for home. The next morning, after Kimiko departs, Piro finds out she quit her voice acting job and tries to find her.

Kimiko and Miho are in the same diner, to which Ed has sent an attack robot (Kill-Bot) against Miho, since she has disrupted his attempts to destroy Ping. Miho is in the diner trying to contact Piro, Kimiko is talking with Erika. Dom is also there to talk with Kimiko. After rescuing both herself and Kimiko from the Kill-Bot and chaos at the diner, the two talk about things. Miho talks to Piro on her phone, argues with him, and then Piro and Kimiko have a conversation about that as the two females are leaving the area. Dom follows and tries to coerce Kimiko into joining SEGA for protection from fans, but she refuses. Drained, she has Miho finish talking to Piro on the phone. Piro then encounters a group who found Kimiko's cell phone and other belongings after she and Miho escaped the diner. The group wants to help Piro get together with Kimiko, partially due to feeling bad for trying to snap a picture up Kimiko's skirt. Piro and the group set out for a press conference Kimiko is going to for the voice acting project, ''Sight''. Besides all of the other fans going to the event, a planned zombie outbreak occurs in the area. Miho, who helped Kimiko get ready for the event and accompanied her to it, later calls the zombies off for unexplained reasons through an unexplained mechanism.

Largo and Yuki, who has since been revealed along the way to be a magical girl like her mother Meimi (likewise revealed), steal a Rent-a-Zilla to fight the zombie outbreak. Largo leaves Yuki to help Piro get to Kimiko. Unfortunately, the Rent-a-Zilla gets bitten by zombies and turns into one itself, resulting in the TPCD capturing it. Yuki protects it from the TPCD, teleports it out of the area, and adopts it as a pet in a miniaturized form, all much to her father's chagrin.

After the event, Erika, Largo, Kimiko and Piro are reunited, and they talk a bit with Miho, who has shown up again after storming out following an argument with Kenji earlier. Miho declines an offer to eat with the group and wanders off thinking about games and Largo and Piro. She is shown walking amongst the zombies and then in Ed's gun-sights, and in the center of an attack by a number of Ed's Kill-Bots.

During the next nine days, Piro and Kimiko have made up and Kimiko returned to both of her jobs, with them seeing little of each other. Largo and Erika are shown to likewise be involved but more often, including going to dinner with the Sonoda family, as the inspector's brother was Erika's fiancé. Kimiko is attempting to get Piro working as an artist on ''Sight'', which unbeknownst to them is now being funded by Dom. Ping is concerned about the whereabouts of Miho, who hasn't been seen during the time, but Piro is still upset about all that has happened and somewhat evasively refuses direct assistance. Ping and Junko, another one of Largo's students, who used to be a friend of Miho, work towards finding Miho. Yuki and Kobayashi Yutaka then also become involved with the attempt because of this. That night, Piro and Kimiko discuss Miho and ''Endgames'', which Yuki overhears, they unaware she is there. This leads Yuki to appropriate Piro's powerless laptop and leave, believing him to still be in love with Miho and that the device might hold clues to finding her. Kimiko and Piro work on his portfolio for ''Sight'' and then they say goodnight and leave. He returns to his apartment, but Kimiko goes to the CoE club using a pass Miho gave her long ago in the beginning. Once at the club, Dom mockingly advises her, Yuki unknowingly whisps past her, and she unexpectedly meets up with an old friend Komugiko. During all this, Piro has left his apartment after looking at his sketchbook and a drawing of Miho. His current location is unknown.

Aside from Kimiko, concurrent overlapping events have led to almost every main character converging upon the club for various reasons involving Miho, or in support of others involved. Ed, attempting to destroy Ping, fights with Largo, as the staff of the club have maneuvered Ed and Ping into the protective radius of ex-Idol Erika. Yuki and Yutaka get Piro's laptop powered on, she reads the old chat logs between Piro and Miho, and follows instructions from her to him. Going to a "hidden-in-plain-sight" hospital room, she finds Miho alive and well, although seemingly in a weakened state. During a heated argument and Miho's goading, Yuki then forcibly moves Miho to the club. Shortly after the arrival of the two in the center of everyone, the bulk of the denizens go into trance-like states while others are fighting or confused about what to do next. Miho appears to be collapsing. Upon instructions from Erika, Largo finds then uses his Largo-Phone and the club's sound system to knock out power in the immediate area of the club. During this event, Piro has gone to visit Miho at the "hospital" room, where he discovers that she is missing. Following the blackout, Largo, Erika, and Miho board a train, where Miho decides to return home. However, a large crowd has blocked her path home, apparently waiting for someone's return.

The next morning, Piro has been brought to jail, where he has been interrogated by police about Miho's disappearance. He is able to leave jail by paying a suspiciously set low bail of about $100 US, which is obtained through a 10,000 yen bill that has been shaped into an origami 'zilla and left in the cell. Piro walks back home, where he finds Miho sleeping on a beanbag in the apartment. Piro and Miho then work out some of the confusion between them, which reveals several background events. She explains the Analogue Support Facility as a sort of safehouse, where she was able to come and go when she wanted. Since Ping in her extreme attempt to find Miho had posted tons of pictures, videos, and information on the internet, people are now using that to "build a 'real' me", as Miho explains it. During the process, at one point Kimiko calls from the studio, updating Piro on his artwork and telling him some of how last night she and others found Miho and how crazy it was. Largo and Erika, who are riding on the roof of a train in the Miyagi prefecture also call during the conversation. After a short conversation with both Largo and Erika on the phone, and a bit more conversation with Miho, Piro instructs her to stay in the apartment until they can figure out what to do. Junko and Ping are shown leaving for school, with Junko seeming taking Ed's shotguns from last night with her.

After receiving a phone call from Yutaka, whom Masamichi initially disapproves of, Yuki, who has not changed clothing from the events of the previous chapter, leaves her house, grabs him, and takes him to a rooftop, where they try to explain things after Yutaka was being questioned by Asako and Mami. She goes over everything, even why she referred to herself as a "monster", which Yuki's friends previously overheard and misunderstood. Realizing that Miho is the cause of this mess, Yutaka indirectly vows revenge, but Yuki stops him. Yutaka goes anyway and meets his brother in front of Megagamers, who has tracked Miho to the store since the previous night. Yutaka's brother is a member of a group of Nanasawa fans who plan to intervene and remind Piro who his true love is to get rid of Miho. However, Dom's van is blocking the store's entrance. Though Yuki protests against intervention to the group, Dom, who is unknown to them, performs his own method of intervention anyway and forces Piro to choose between Nanasawa and Miho. It is currently unknown if Dom knows who Miho is, but Miho, in a disguise, overhears the conversation and forces Piro to briefly wear a hat. At the same time, Yuki, deciding that she can wait no longer, steals Dom's van and guns, and rushes into the store with Yutaka in tow. Seeing this, Miho grabs Piro and rushes upstairs, discarding the hat in the process. Yuki subsequently collides with the hat and a presumed explosion occurs, stalling Yuki and Yutaka. Miho and Piro don cosplay outfits as a disguise, escape, and make their way to the local bath house. Just before Yuki grabs Yutaka again, Dom, now trapped under a pile of rubble, expresses his condolences to Yutaka, to which he does not understand. The pair quickly follow Miho and Piro and await for them to leave the bath house.

Mobile Suit Gundam

Set in a fictional universe (Universal Century year 0079 according to the Gundam Calendar), the Principality of Zeon has declared independence from the Earth Federation, and subsequently launched a war of independence called the One Year War. The conflict has directly affected every continent on Earth, also nearly every space colony and lunar settlement. Zeon, though smaller, has the tactical upper hand through their use of a new type of humanoid weapons called mobile suits. After half of all humanity perishes in the conflict, the war settled into a bitter stalemate lasting over 8 months.

The story begins with a newly deployed Federation warship, the ''White Base'', arriving at the secret research base located at the Side 7 colony to pick up the Federation's newest weapon. However, they are closely followed by Zeon forces. A Zeon reconnaissance team member disobeys mission orders and attacks the colony, killing most of the Federation crew and civilians in the process. Out of desperation, young Amuro Ray accidentally finds the Federation's new prototype arsenal—the RX-78 Gundam, and manages to beat back Zeon forces. Scrambling everything they can, the ''White Base'' sets out with her newly formed crew of civilian recruits and refugees in her journey to survive.

On their journey, the White Base members often encounter the Zeon Lieutenant Commander Char Aznable. Although Char antagonizes Amuro in battle, he takes advantage of their position as Federation members to have them kill members from Zeon's Zabi family as part of his revenge scheme. Amuro also meets ensign Lalah Sune with whom he falls in love, but accidentally kills when facing Char. When the Federation Forces invade the Fortress of A Baoa Qu to defeat the Zeon forces, Amuro engages on a final one-on-one duel against Char due to both blaming the other for Lalah's death. Having realized he forgot his true enemy, Char stops fighting to kill the last surviving Zabi member, Kycilia Zabi. Amuro then reunites with his comrades as the war reaches its end.

Moonfleet (novel)

In 1757, Moonfleet is a small village along the coast of southern England. The village takes its name from a formerly prominent local family, the Mohunes. The main character is John Trenchard, an orphan who lives with his aunt, Miss Arnold. The village church includes the sexton, Mr. Ratsey, and Parson Glennie, who also teaches in the village school. Elzevir Block is the landlord of the ''Mohune Arms''. The inn is nicknamed the ''Why Not?'', a pun on the Mohune coat of arms, which includes a ''cross-pall'' in the shape of the letter "Y". Mr. Maskew is the local magistrate, who has a daughter, Grace. Village legend tells of the notorious Colonel John "Blackbeard" Mohune who is buried in the family crypt under the church. He is reputed to have stolen a diamond from King Charles I and hidden it. His ghost is said to wander at night looking for it and the mysterious lights in the churchyard are attributed to his activities.

As the main part of the story opens, Block's youthful son, David, has just been killed by Maskew during a raid by the Maskew and other authorities on a smuggling boat. One night a bad storm hits the village and there is a flood. While attending the Sunday service at church, John hears strange sounds from the crypt below. He thinks it is the sound of the coffins of the Mohune family. The next day, he finds Elzevir and Ratsey against the south wall of the church. They claim to be checking for damage from the storm, but John suspects they are searching for Blackbeard's ghost.

Later John finds a large sinkhole has opened in the ground by a grave. He follows the passage and finds himself in the crypt with coffins on shelves and casks on the floor. He realises his friends are smugglers and this is their hiding place. He has to hide behind a coffin when he hears Ratsey and Elzevir coming. When they leave, they fill in the hole, inadvertently trapping him. John finds a locket in the coffin that he hid behind (it turns out to be that of Blackbeard himself) which holds a piece of paper with verses from the Bible. John eventually passes out after drinking too much of the wine while trying to quench his thirst, having not eaten or drunk for over 24 hours. Later he wakes up in the ''Why Not?'' inn – he has been rescued by Elzevir and Ratsey. When he is better, he returns to his aunt's house, but she, suspecting him of drunken behaviour, throws him out. Elzevir takes him in.

When Block's lease on the ''Why Not?'' comes up for renewal, Maskew bids against him in the auction and wins. Block must leave the inn and Moonfleet but plans one last smuggling venture. John feels honour-bound to go with him, and visits Grace Maskew, whom he loves and has been seeing in secret, to say goodbye; his aunt gives him his mother's prayer book — her last hope to influence John towards piety. The excisemen and Maskew are aware of the planned smuggling run but do not know exactly where it will occur. During the landing Maskew appears and is caught by the smugglers. Elzevir is bent on vengeance for his son by killing Maskew, and while the rest land the cargo and leave, he and John keep watch over Maskew. Just as Block prepares to shoot Maskew the excisemen attack. They wound John and unintentionally kill Maskew. Block carries John away to safety and they hide in some old quarries. While there, John inadvertently finds out that the verses from Blackbeard's locket contain a code that will reveal the location of his famous diamond.

Once John's wound heals, he and Block decide to recover the diamond from Carisbrooke Castle. After a suspenseful scene in the well where the jewel is hidden, they succeed in escaping to Holland where they try to sell it to a diamond merchant named Krispijn Aldobrand. The merchant cheats them, claiming the diamond is fake. Elzevir falls for the deceit and angrily throws the diamond out of the window. John, however, knows they have been duped, and suggests they try to recover the diamond through burglary. The attempt fails and they are arrested and sentenced to prison. John curses the merchant for his lies.

John and Elzevir go to prison for life. Eventually they are separated. Then, unexpectedly, ten years later, their paths cross again. They are being transported, and board a ship. A storm blows up, and by a strong coincidence, the ship is wrecked upon Moonfleet beach. While trying to reach the beach Elzevir helps John to safety, but is himself dragged under by the surf and drowned.

John arrives where he originally started, in the ''Why Not?'', and is reunited with Ratsey. He is also reunited with Grace. She is now a rich young lady, having inherited her father's money. However, she is still in love with John. John tells her about the diamond and his life in prison. He regrets having lost everything, but she says, rich or not, she loves him.

Then Parson Glennie visits and reveals he had received a letter from Aldobrand. The merchant, suffering a guilty conscience and in an attempt to make amends, had bequeathed the worth of the diamond to John.

John gives the money to the village, and new almshouses are built, and the school and the church renovated. John marries Grace and becomes Lord of the Manor and Justice of the Peace. They have three children, including their first-born son, Elzevir. The children grow up, the sons going away to "serve King George on sea and land" while their daughter too, it seems, has married away. But John and Grace themselves do not leave their beloved Moonfleet ever again.

### Backgammon

One feature of the narrative is a continuing reference to the boardgame of backgammon which is played by the patrons of the ''Why Not?'' on an antique board which bears a Latin inscription ''Ita in vita ut in lusu alae pessima jactura arte corrigenda est'' (translated in the book as ''As in life, so in a game of hazard, skill will make something of the worst of throws'').

Max Headroom (TV series)

In the future, an oligarchy of television networks rules the world. Even the government functions primarily as a puppet of the network executives, serving mainly to pass laws — such as banning "off" switches on televisions — that protect and consolidate the networks' power. Television technology has advanced to the point that viewers' physical movements and thoughts can be monitored through their television sets. Almost all non-television technology has been discontinued or destroyed. The only real check on the power of the networks is Edison Carter, a crusading investigative journalist who regularly exposes the unethical practices of his own employer, and the team of allies both inside and outside the system who assist him in getting his reports to air and protecting him from the forces that wish to silence or kill him.

My Neighbor Totoro

In 1950s Japan, university professor Tatsuo Kusakabe and his two daughters, Satsuki and Mei (approximately ten and four years old, respectively), move into an old house to be closer to the hospital where the girls' mother, Yasuko, is recovering from a long-term illness. The house is inhabited by small, dark, dust-like house spirits called susuwatari which can be seen when moving from bright to dark places.Called "black soots" in early subtitles and "soot sprites" in the later English dubbed version. When the girls become comfortable in their new house, the susuwatari leave to find another empty house. One day, Mei discovers two small spirits who lead her into the hollow of a large camphor tree. She befriends a larger spirit, which identifies itself by a series of roars that she interprets as "Totoro". Mei thinks Totoro is the Troll from her illustrated book ''Three Billy Goats Gruff'', with her mispronouncing Troll. She falls asleep atop Totoro, but when Satsuki finds her, she is on the ground. Despite many attempts, Mei is unable to show her family Totoro's tree. Tatsuo comforts her by telling her that Totoro will reveal himself when he wants to.

One rainy night, the girls are waiting for Tatsuo's bus, which is late. Mei falls asleep on Satsuki's back, and Totoro appears beside them, allowing Satsuki to see him for the first time. Totoro has only a leaf on his head for protection against the rain, so Satsuki offers him the umbrella she had taken for her father. Delighted, he gives her a bundle of nuts and seeds in return. A giant, bus-shaped cat halts at the stop, and Totoro boards it and leaves. Shortly after, Tatsuo's bus arrives. A few days after planting the seeds, the girls awaken at midnight to find Totoro and his colleagues engaged in a ceremonial dance around the planted seeds and join in, causing the seeds to grow into an enormous tree. Totoro takes the girls for a ride on a magical flying top. In the morning, the tree is gone, but the seeds have sprouted.

The girls find out that a planned visit by Yasuko has to be postponed because of a setback in her treatment. Mei does not take this well and argues with Satsuki, later leaving for the hospital to bring fresh corn to Yasuko. Her disappearance prompts Satsuki and the neighbors to search for her. In desperation, Satsuki returns to the camphor tree and pleads for Totoro's help. He delightfully summons the Catbus, which carries her to where the lost Mei sits and the sisters emotionally reunite. The bus then takes them to the hospital. The girls overhear a conversation between their parents and learn that she has been kept in hospital by a minor cold but is otherwise doing well. They secretly leave the ear of corn on the windowsill, where their parents discover it, and return home. Eventually, Yasuko returns home, and the sisters play with other children, while Totoro and his friends watch them from afar.

Mulholland Drive (film)

A dark-haired woman is the sole survivor of a car crash on Mulholland Drive, a winding road high in the Hollywood Hills. Injured and in shock, she makes her way down into Los Angeles and sneaks into an apartment. Later that morning, an aspiring actress named Betty Elms arrives at the apartment, which is normally occupied by her Aunt Ruth. Betty is startled to find the woman, who has amnesia and calls herself "Rita" after seeing a poster for the film ''Gilda'' starring Rita Hayworth. To help the woman remember her identity, Betty looks in Rita's purse, where she finds a large amount of money and an unusual blue key.

At a diner called Winkie's, a man tells another about a nightmare in which he dreamt of encountering a horrific figure behind the diner. When they investigate, the figure appears, causing the man who had the nightmare to collapse in fright. Elsewhere, director Adam Kesher has his film commandeered by mobsters, who insist he cast an unknown actress named Camilla Rhodes as the lead. Adam refuses and returns home to find his wife Lorraine cheating on him. When the mobsters withdraw his line of credit, Adam arranges to meet a mysterious cowboy, who cryptically urges him to cast Camilla for his own good. Meanwhile, a bungling hitman attempts to steal a book full of phone numbers and leaves three people dead.

While trying to learn more about Rita's accident, Betty and Rita go to Winkie's and are served by a waitress named Diane, which causes Rita to remember the name "Diane Selwyn". They find Diane Selwyn in the phone book and call her, but she does not answer. Betty goes to an audition, where her performance is highly praised. A casting agent takes her to a soundstage where a film called ''The Sylvia North Story'', directed by Adam, is being cast. When Camilla Rhodes auditions, Adam capitulates to casting her. Betty locks eyes with Adam, but she flees before she can meet him, saying she is late to meet a friend. Betty and Rita go to Diane Selwyn's apartment, where a neighbor answers the door and tells them she has switched apartments with Diane. They go to the neighbor's apartment and break in when no one answers the door. In the bedroom, they find the body of a woman who has been dead for several days. Terrified, they return to Betty's apartment, where Rita disguises herself with a blonde wig. She and Betty have sex that night.

At 2 a.m., Rita awakes suddenly, insisting they go right away to a theater called Club Silencio. There, the emcee explains in different languages that everything is an illusion; Rebekah Del Rio comes on stage and begins singing the Roy Orbison song "Crying" in Spanish, then collapses, unconscious, while her vocals continue. Betty finds a blue box in her purse that matches Rita's key. Upon returning to the apartment, Rita retrieves the key and finds that Betty has disappeared. Rita unlocks the box, and it falls to the floor.

Diane Selwyn wakes up in her bed in the same apartment Betty and Rita investigated. She looks exactly like Betty, but is a struggling actress driven into a deep depression by her failed affair with Camilla Rhodes, who is a successful actress and looks exactly like Rita. At Camilla's invitation, Diane attends a party at Adam's house on Mulholland Drive. At dinner, Diane states she came to Hollywood from Canada when her Aunt Ruth died and left her some money, and she met Camilla at an audition for ''The Sylvia North Story''. Another woman who looks like the previous "Camilla Rhodes" kisses Camilla, and they turn and smile at Diane. Adam and Camilla prepare to make an important announcement, but they devolve into laughter and kiss while Diane watches, crying. Later, Diane meets the hitman at Winkie's, to hire him to kill Camilla. He tells her she will find a blue key when the job is completed. The figure from the man's dream is revealed to have the matching blue box. In her apartment, Diane looks at the blue key on her coffee table. Distraught, she is terrorized by hallucinations and runs screaming to her bed, where she shoots herself. A woman at the theater whispers, "Silencio".

Might and Magic

Although most of the gameplay reflects a distinctly fantasy genre, the overarching plot of the first nine games has something of a science fiction background. The series is set in a fictional galaxy as part of an alternative universe, where planets are overseen by a powerful race of space travelers known as Ancients who seeded them with humans, elves, dwarves and others. In each of the games, a party of characters fights monsters and completes quests on one of these planets, until they eventually become involved in the affairs of the Ancients. Might and Magic could as such be considered an example of science fantasy.

The producer of the series was Jon Van Caneghem. Van Caneghem has stated in interview that the ''Might and Magic'' setting is inspired by his love for both science fiction and fantasy. He cites ''The Twilight Zone'' and the ''Star Trek'' episode ''For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky'' as having inspired ''Might and Magic'' lore.

The first five games in the series concern the renegade guardian of the planet Terra, named Sheltem, who becomes irrevocably corrupted, developing a penchant for throwing planets into their suns. Sheltem establishes himself on a series of flat worlds known as nacelles (which are implied to be giant spaceships) and Corak, a second guardian and creation of the Ancients, with the assistance of the player characters, pursues him across the Void. Eventually both Corak and Sheltem are destroyed in a climactic battle on the nacelle of Xeen.

The sixth, seventh and eighth games take place on Enroth, a single planet partially ruled by the Ironfist dynasty, and chronicle the events and aftermath of an invasion by the Kreegan (colloquially referred to as Devils), the demonlike arch-enemies of the Ancients. It is also revealed that the destruction wrought by the Ancients' wars with the Kreegan is the reason why the worlds of Might & Magic exist as medieval fantasy settings despite once being seeded with futuristic technology – the worlds have been 'cut off' from the Ancients and descended into barbarism. The first through third games in the ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' series traces the fortunes of the Ironfists in more detail. None of the science fiction elements appear in the ''Heroes'' series besides the appearance of Kreegan characters in ''Heroes of Might and Magic III'' and ''IV''. ''Might & Magic IX'' and ''Heroes IV'' take place on Axeoth, another planet which the survivors of Enroth were brought to through portals after it was destroyed in an event called the Reckoning.

The Ubisoft release ''Might & Magic X: Legacy'' departs from this continuity and is set in the world of Ashan. Ashan is a high fantasy setting with no science fiction elements in its lore.

Meet the Feebles

The eponymous Feeble Variety Hour theatre troupe is rehearsing the title song with hopes of finding success through being picked up for a syndicated television show. Heidi (a hippopotamus), the star of the show, is insulted by pornographic director Trevor (a rat) and complains to her boss and lover, Bletch (a walrus), who is actually in an adulterous relationship with Samantha (a Siamese cat). Meanwhile, Robert (a hedgehog), the newest member of the team, arrives at the theatre, and is accosted by reporter F. W. Fly (a fly), who tries to corrupt Robert into informing on the cast, and meets Arthur (a worm), the show's manager, and immediately falls in love with another newcomer, Lucille (a poodle). Guppy (a fish) auditions for The Feebles backstage, only to get eaten by Bletch. After Heidi finishes jogging, Samantha confronts her, insults her, and reveals her relationship with Bletch, resulting in a fight between the two, in which Heidi throws her to a cardboard box. Although he is romantically terrified of Lucille at first, Robert later serenades her, confessing his love to her, and the two become engaged. Sid (an elephant) gets stressed when his tribble-like pets are crushed by a barrel, and he receives a visit from his ex-girlfriend Sandy (a chicken) with his alleged son Seymour the Elechicken (an improbable-looking elephant/chicken hybrid). Sandy informs him she will be preparing a paternity case against him. Distraught, Heidi drowns her sorrows in an entire chocolate cake, as she reminisces about her past romance with Bletch in a black-and-white flashback to her days as a lounge singer.

Bletch and Barry (a bulldog) are later shown on a golf course consummating a drug deal with Cedric (a warthog), during which Bletch and Cedric deliberately sabotage eachother during the golf game- Cedric by sneezing loudly, and Bletch by vomiting upthe still half-alive Guppy.

At the toilet, the second most important star of the show, Harry (a rabbit), is suffering from a mystery disease (later insinuated to be myxomatosis) and F. W. Fly harasses Harry. Dr. Quack (a duck) gives him only twelve hours to live, and F. W. Fly continually harasses Harry, ultimately reporting his illness to the tabloids. Meanwhile, drug-addicted knife thrower Wynyard (a frog) tells Robert his story of Vietnam, and convinces Robert to give him $50 to buy drugs from Trevor. After seeing Trevor's latest porno film starring Dennis (an aardvark) and Madame Bovine (a cow) (during which The Masked Masochist (a weta) gets sat on by her, suffocated, and fed to a monster), Bletch decides they need a new porn star, and Trevor chooses Lucille. During rehearsal, Abi the Indian mystic (a human) incapacitates himself by contorting himself into a ball. Seeing his show in shambles, Sebastian tries to convince Bletch to feature his personal performance, the sexually explicit number "Sodomy" (which he claims to have done before). This is summarily rejected by Bletch, who physically throws Sebastian out of his office, who curses Bletch for his inaction. Heidi samples everything at the bakery, including a Black Forest cake. Trevor drugs Lucille and tries to rape her as an audition, but is caught by Robert. When he walks in on the scene, Robert thinks that Lucille was drinking and throwing herself at Trevor, and tells her he never wants to see her again.

Belching caused by the Black Forest cake causes Heidi to lay waste to the set during the rehearsal of "Garden of Love", a feature number. The director of the show, Sebastian (a red fox), then lambasts her. Heidi rushes to Bletch for emotional affirmation, but he is unable to spare her the sight of Samantha performing oral sex on him.

That night, after testing the drugs on Dennis, the drugs provided by Cedric turn out to be household borax, infuriating Bletch. Cedric's agent Louie (a dog) is literally liquefied after being force-fed some of the borax by Bletch's henchmen. Heidi locks herself in her room and refuses to perform, but relents after Bletch has make-up sex with her. Bletch and his cronies venture to the docklands to fight Cedric and his crab-crewmen. Bletch's side prevails after killing Cedric and the crabs. However, the huge spider eats the head of Barry, and Bletch and Trevor maneuver past the huge spider, and drive through the insides of Cedric's boss, Mr. Big (a sperm whale). Bletch reads about "The Big One" in ''The Speculator'', and, presumably wanting to avoid negative press on the cast, decides to retaliate. Trevor lures F. W. Fly into the bathroom, where Bletch tears his wings off and flushes F. W. Fly down the toilet.

After a good beginning, the Feebles sign with a TV chain to appear in a prime-time television show. Shortly afterwards, Heidi attempts to seduce Bletch in his office, but Bletch confesses to Heidi that he actually hates her and wants to give the main role to Samantha. Later, things begin to go awry during the performance. An ailing Harry winds up vomiting all over the stage during his appearance, Sid is accosted by Sandy in the midst of his act, which causes it to fall apart, Wynyard accidentally kills himself during his act when he loses his grip on one of his knives and it comes down on his head, and Sebastian decides to take matters into his own hands.

After a failed attempt at hanging herself, Heidi then tries to commit suicide with an M60 machine gun, but at that second, Samantha walks into the room and taunts Heidi upon seeing her about to end her life. Heidi snaps, turns the gun on Samantha, and shoots her dead. Heidi then goes on a shooting spree, killing many of the cast, including Harry (who was told by Dr. Quack that he was indeed going to recover when he finally learns that he only has "bunny pox"), Abi, and others, during which Sebastian, in a poor and desperate attempt to save the show, puts on a musical number about the act of "Sodomy", disgusting the silent and unamused live audience, much to Bletch's horror (who then schemes to have him eliminated when he gets the chance). At the end of the show, Heidi continues her shooting spree, and Robert rescues Lucille from being shot and professes that he still loves her, and Lucille tells him the truth about Trevor's attempted raping of her. Sid braves the crazed Heidi's automatic fire to save his son. His heroism costs the elephant two bloody knee wounds, and he accidentally crushes Sandy's shot-off head (when she demanded the crazed Heidi to shoot Sid, but was shot by Heidi instead) after it squawks out one final invective.

Bletch attempts to talk Heidi into surrendering, but Heidi opens fire on him and he drops from the balcony. Lying injured on the stage, Bletch convinces Heidi to stop her rampage by proclaiming he still loves her, only for Trevor to shoot her in the shoulder from behind with a shotgun. Bletch, having tricked Heidi into letting her guard down, orders Trevor to kill her, only for Robert to intervene by swinging on a rope from the rafters and colliding with Trevor, incapacitating Trevor briefly enough for Heidi to reclaim the machine gun and shoot him dead. Bletch lunges at Heidi in a last ditch effort, but is killed too. From backstage, Arthur tells Heidi that he regrettably had to tip off the police about Heidi's shooting rampage. Heidi accepts this and makes one last request before her impending incarceration - to play her musical number, "Garden of Love", to which Arthur complies.

The epilogue reveals the fates of only seven survivors: Sid gets extensive repair on his kneecaps after being accidentally shot by Heidi in her rampage and works in an orchard as a struggling horticulturist with his son Seymour. Arthur received an OBE for his lifelong service at the theater and retires to the country. Sebastian recovers from his injuries and became a successful writer who achieved worldwide fame for his best seller ''The Feeble Variety Massacre: One Man's Act of Heroism!'' and is currently negotiating film rights. Robert (now an award-winning fashion photographer for a women's magazine) and Lucille are married with two children. Finally, Heidi, whose killing spree resulted in her imprisonment in a women's penitentiary for ten years, has been rehabilitated under the community and now works under a new identity on the check-out counter of a large supermarket.

Nanook of the North

The documentary follows the lives of an Inuk, Nanook, and his family as they travel, search for food, and trade in the Ungava Peninsula of northern Quebec, Canada. Nanook, his wife Nyla and their family are introduced as fearless heroes who endure rigors no other race could survive. The audience sees Nanook, often with his family, hunt a walrus, build an igloo, go about his day, and perform other tasks.

Natural Born Killers

Mickey Knox and his wife Mallory stop at a diner in the New Mexico desert. A duo of rednecks arrive and begin sexually harassing Mallory as she dances by a jukebox. She initially encourages it before beating one of the men viciously. Mickey joins her, and the couple murder everyone in the diner, save one customer, to whom they proudly declare their names before leaving. The couple camp in the desert, and Mallory reminisces about how she met Mickey, a meat deliveryman who serviced her family's household. After a whirlwind romance, the couple had murdered Mallory's sexually abusive father and neglectful mother before having an unofficial marriage ceremony on a bridge.

Later, Mickey and Mallory hold a woman hostage in their hotel room. Angered by Mickey's desire for a threesome, Mallory leaves, and Mickey rapes the hostage. Mallory drives to a nearby gas station, where she flirts with a mechanic. They begin to have sex on the hood of a car, but after Mallory suffers a flashback of being raped by her father and the mechanic recognizes her as a wanted murderer, Mallory kills him. The pair continue their killing spree, ultimately claiming 52 victims in New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. Pursuing them is detective Jack Scagnetti, who became obsessed with mass murderers at the age of eight after having witnessed the murder of his mother at the hand of Charles Whitman. Beneath his heroic façade, he is also a violent psychopath and has murdered prostitutes in his past. Following the pair's murder spree is self-serving tabloid journalist Wayne Gale, who profiles them on his show ''American Maniacs'', soon elevating them to cult-hero status.

Mickey and Mallory become lost in the desert after taking psychedelic mushrooms, and they stumble upon a ranch owned by Warren Red Cloud, a Navajo man who provides them food and shelter. As Mickey and Mallory sleep, Warren, sensing evil in the couple, attempts to exorcise the demon that he perceives in Mickey, chanting over him as he sleeps. Mickey, who has nightmares of his abusive parents, awakens during the exorcism and shoots Warren to death. As the couple flee, they feel inexplicably guilty and come across a giant field of rattlesnakes, where they are badly bitten. They reach a drugstore to purchase snakebite antidote, but the store is sold out. A pharmacist recognizes the couple and triggers an alarm before Mickey kills him. Police arrive shortly after and accost the couple and a shootout ensues. The police end the showdown by beating the couple while a news crew films the action.

One year later, the imprisoned Mickey and Mallory are thought to be criminally insane and are scheduled to be transferred to psychiatric hospitals, with Scagnetti overseeing their transfer. Warden Dwight McClusky tells Scagnetti that he should kill the Knoxes during their transfer and claim that they had tried to escape. Meanwhile, Gale has persuaded Mickey to submit to a live interview that will air after the Super Bowl. During the interview, Mickey declares himself a "natural born killer," inspiring the other inmates to start a prison riot. After McClusky terminates the interview, Mickey is left alone with Gale, the film crew and several guards. He manages to overpower a guard and kill most of the people in the room, taking Gale and several others hostage. Gale and his crew give a live television report that profiles the riot. Meanwhile, when Scagnetti attempts to seduce Mallory in her cell, she beats him viciously before another guard subdues her with tear gas. Mickey and Gale reach Mallory's cell, where Mickey kills the guards and engages in a Mexican standoff with Scagnetti before Mallory murders him.

Gale's entire television crew is killed trying to escape the riot, while Gale himself begins indulging in violence, shooting at prison guards. Mickey and Mallory steal a van and escape into the woods with Gale, to whom they give a final interview before declaring that he must die. He attempts various arguments to change their minds, appealing to their trademark practice of leaving one survivor. Mickey informs him that they are leaving a witness to tell the tale: his camera. Gale accepts his fate and is shot to death. Unbeknownst to the three, the entire exchange is transmitted to a horrified news anchor through Gale's in-ear microphone.

Several years later, Mickey and Mallory, still fugitives, travel in an RV, as a pregnant Mallory watches their two children play.

Nights into Dreams

Every night, all human dreams are played out in Nightopia and Nightmare, the two parts of the dream world. In Nightopia, distinct aspects of dreamers' personalities are represented by luminous coloured spheres known as "Ideya". The evil ruler of Nightmare, Wizeman the Wicked, is stealing this dream energy from sleeping visitors in order to gather power and take control of Nightopia and eventually the real world. To achieve this, he creates five beings called "Nightmaren": jester-like, flight-capable beings, which include Jackle, Clawz, Gulpo, Gillwing and Puffy as well as many minor maren. He also creates two "Level One" Nightmaren: Nights and Reala. However, Nights rebels against Wizeman's plans, and is punished by being imprisoned inside an Ideya palace, a container for dreamers' Ideya.

One day, Elliot Edwards and Claris Sinclair, two teenagers from the city of Twin Seeds, go through failures. Elliot, a basketball player, is challenged by a group of older students and suffers a humiliating defeat on the court. Claris, a singer, is overcome by stage fright when auditioning for judges, which causes her to lose all hopes of getting the role. When they go to sleep that night, both Elliot and Claris suffer nightmares that replay the events. They escape into Nightopia and find that they both possess the rare Red Ideya of Courage, the only type that Wizeman cannot steal. Elliot and Claris release Nights, who tells them about dreams and Wizeman and his plans; the three begin a journey to stop Wizeman and restore peace to Nightopia. When they defeat Wizeman and Reala, peace is returned to Nightopia and the world of Nightmare is suppressed.

The next day, in Twin Seeds, a centenary ceremony begins. Elliot walks through the parade and has a vision of Nights looking at him through a billboard. Realizing that Claris is performing in a hall, Elliot runs through the crowd and sees Claris on stage in front of a large audience, singing well. The two look at each other and transition to Nightopia.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

In 2015, fifteen years after a global cataclysm known as the Second Impact, teenager Shinji Ikari is summoned to the futuristic city of Tokyo-3 by his estranged father Gendo Ikari, director of the special paramilitary force Nerv. Shinji witnesses United Nations forces battling an Angel, one of a race of giant monstrous beings whose awakening was foretold by the Dead Sea Scrolls. Because of the Angels' near-impenetrable force-fields, Nerv's giant Evangelion bio-machines, synchronized to the nervous systems of their pilots and possessing their own force-fields, are the only weapons capable of keeping the Angels from annihilating humanity. Nerv officer Misato Katsuragi escorts Shinji into the Nerv complex beneath the city, where his father pressures him into piloting the Evangelion Unit-01 against the Angel. Without training, Shinji is quickly overwhelmed in the battle, causing the Evangelion to go berserk and savagely kill the Angel on its own.

Following hospitalization, Shinji moves in with Misato and settles into life in Tokyo-3. In his second battle, Shinji destroys an Angel but runs away afterward, distraught. Misato confronts Shinji and he decides to remain a pilot. The Nerv crew and Shinji must then battle and defeat the remaining fourteen Angels to prevent the Third Impact, a global cataclysm that would destroy the world. Evangelion Unit-00 is repaired shortly afterward. Shinji tries to befriend its pilot, the mysterious, socially isolated teenage girl Rei Ayanami. With Rei's help, Shinji defeats another Angel. They are then joined by the pilot of Evangelion Unit-02, the multitalented but insufferable teenager Asuka Langley Sōryu, who is German-Japanese-American. Together, the three of them manage to defeat several Angels. As Shinji adjusts to his new role as a pilot, he gradually becomes more confident and self-assured. Asuka moves in with Shinji, and they begin to develop confusing feelings for one another, kissing at her provocation.

After being absorbed by an Angel, Shinji breaks free thanks to Eva acting on its own. He is later forced to fight an infected Evangelion Unit-03 and watches its pilot, his friend and classmate Toji Suzuhara, become incapacitated and permanently disabled. Asuka loses her self-confidence following a defeat and spirals into depression. This is worsened by her next fight, against an Angel which attacks her mind and forces her to relive her worst fears and childhood trauma, resulting in a mental breakdown. In the next battle, Rei self-destructs Unit-00 and dies to save Shinji's life. Misato and Shinji visit the hospital where they find Rei alive but claiming she is "the third Rei". Misato forces scientist Ritsuko Akagi to reveal the dark secrets of Nerv, the Evangelion boneyard, and the dummy plug system which operates using clones of Rei, who was herself created with the DNA of Shinji's mother, Yui Ikari. This succession of events leaves Shinji emotionally scarred and alienated from the rest of the characters. Kaworu Nagisa replaces the catatonic Asuka as the pilot of Unit-02. Kaworu, who initially befriends Shinji and gains his trust, is in truth the final foretold Angel, Tabris. Kaworu fights Shinji, then realizes that he must die if humanity is to survive and asks Shinji to kill him. Shinji hesitates but eventually kills Kaworu; the event makes Shinji overridden with guilt.

After the final Angel is defeated, Seele, the mysterious cabal overseeing the events of the series, triggers the "Human Instrumentality Project", a forced evolution of humanity in which the souls of all mankind are merged for benevolent purposes, believing that if unified, humanity could finally overcome the loneliness and alienation that has eternally plagued mankind. Shinji's soul grapples with the reason for his existence and reaches an epiphany that he needs others to thrive, enabling him to destroy the wall of negative emotions that torment him and reunite with the others, who congratulate him.

Neuromancer

Henry Dorsett Case is a low-level hustler in the dystopian underworld of Chiba City, Japan. Once a talented computer hacker and "console cowboy", Case was caught stealing from his employer. As punishment, Case's central nervous system was damaged, leaving him unable to access the virtual reality dataspace called the "matrix". Case is approached by Molly Millions, an augmented "razorgirl" and mercenary on behalf of a shadowy US ex-military officer named Armitage, who offers to cure Case for his services as a hacker. Case agrees, and his nervous system is repaired, though sacs of poison are placed in his blood vessels. If Case completes the job, Armitage will have the sacs removed; if not, they will burst and cripple him again.

Armitage has Case and Molly steal a ROM module that contains the saved consciousness of one of Case's mentors, legendary cyber-cowboy McCoy Pauley.

Case and Molly discover Armitage's former identity as Colonel Willis Corto. Corto was a member of "Operation Screaming Fist," meant to disrupt Soviet computer systems. As his team attacked a Soviet computer center, EMP weapons shut down their flight systems. He and a few survivors escaped over the Finnish border, but their helicopter was shot down, killing everyone except for Corto. After months in a hospital, Corto was visited by a US government official, who returned him to the United States to receive psychotherapy and reconstructive surgery. After providing what he came to realize was false testimony, misleading the public and protecting corrupt military officers, Corto snapped, killed the official who contacted him, and disappeared into the criminal underworld, becoming Armitage.

In Istanbul, the team recruits Peter Riviera, a sociopathic thief and drug addict. The trail leads Case to Wintermute, an artificial intelligence created by the Tessier-Ashpool family. The Tessier-Ashpools spend their time in cryonic preservation at Freeside, a cylindrical space habitat which functions as a Las Vegas-style space resort for the wealthy.

Wintermute reveals itself to Case. Wintermute explains that it is half of a super-AI entity planned by the family. Wintermute was programmed with a need to merge with its other half, Neuromancer. Unable to achieve this by itself, Wintermute recruited Armitage and his team. Case is tasked with entering cyberspace to pierce the software barriers with an icebreaker program. Riviera is to obtain the password to the lock from Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool, the CEO of the family's corporation.

Armitage's personality starts to revert to the Corto personality as he relives Screaming Fist. It is revealed that Wintermute had originally contacted Corto through a computer during his psychotherapy, creating his Armitage persona. As Corto breaks through, he is uncontrollable, and Wintermute ejects him into space.

Riviera meets Lady 3Jane and tries to stop the mission, helping Lady 3Jane and Hideo, her ninja bodyguard, capture Molly. Under orders from Wintermute, Case tracks Molly down. Neuromancer traps Case within a simulated reality after he enters cyberspace. He finds the consciousness of Linda Lee, his girlfriend from Chiba City, who was murdered by one of his underworld contacts. He also meets Neuromancer, who takes the form of a young boy. Neuromancer tries to convince Case to remain in the virtual world with Linda, but Case refuses.

With Wintermute guiding them, Case goes to confront Lady 3Jane, Riviera, and Hideo. Riviera tries to kill Case, but Lady 3Jane is sympathetic towards Case and Molly, and Hideo protects him. Riviera flees, and Molly explains that he is doomed anyway, as she had spiked his drugs with a lethal toxin. The team makes it to the computer terminal. Case enters cyberspace to guide the icebreaker; Lady 3Jane is induced to give up her password, and the lock opens. Wintermute unites with Neuromancer, becoming a superconsciousness. The poison in Case's bloodstream is washed out, and he and Molly are profusely paid, while Pauley's ROM construct is apparently erased, at his own request.

Molly leaves Case, who finds a new girlfriend and resumes his hacking work. Wintermute/Neuromancer contacts him, claiming it has become "the sum total of the works, the whole show" and is looking for others like itself. Scanning recorded transmissions, the super-AI finds a transmission from the Alpha Centauri star system.

While logged into cyberspace, Case glimpses Neuromancer standing in the distance with Linda Lee, and himself. He also hears inhuman laughter, which suggests that Pauley still lives. The sighting implies that Neuromancer created a copy of Case's consciousness, which now exists, with Linda's and Pauley's, in cyberspace.

Cryptonomicon

The action takes place in two periods—World War II and the late 1990s, during the Internet boom and the Asian financial crisis.

In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, a young United States Navy code breaker and mathematical genius, is assigned to the newly formed joint British and American Detachment 2702. This ultra-secret unit's role is to hide the fact that Allied intelligence has cracked the German Enigma code. The detachment stages events, often behind enemy lines, that provide alternative explanations for the Allied intelligence successes. United States Marine sergeant Bobby Shaftoe, a veteran of China and Guadalcanal, serves in unit 2702, carrying out Waterhouse's plans. At the same time, Japanese soldiers, including mining engineer Goto Dengo, a "friendly enemy" of Shaftoe's, are assigned to build a mysterious bunker in the mountains in the Philippines as part of what turns out to be a literal suicide mission.

Circa 1997, Randy Waterhouse (Lawrence's grandson) joins his old role-playing game companion Avi Halaby in a new startup, providing Pinoy-grams (inexpensive, non-real-time video messages) to migrant Filipinos via new fiber-optic cables. The Epiphyte Corporation uses this income stream to fund the creation of a data haven in the nearby fictional Sultanate of Kinakuta. Vietnam veteran Doug Shaftoe, the son of Bobby Shaftoe, and his daughter Amy do the undersea surveying for the cables and engineering work on the haven, which is overseen by Goto Furudenendu, heir-apparent to Goto Engineering. Complications arise as figures from the past reappear seeking gold or revenge.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Three convicts, Pete and Delmar led by Ulysses Everett McGill, escape from a chain gang and set out to retrieve a treasure Everett said was buried before the area is flooded to make a lake. The three get a lift from a blind man driving a handcar on a railway. He tells them they will find a fortune, but not the one they seek. The trio make their way to the house of Wash, Pete's cousin. They sleep in the barn, but Wash reports them to Sheriff Cooley, who, along with his men, torches the barn. Wash's son helps them escape.

They pick up Tommy Johnson, a young black man who claims he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the ability to play guitar. In need of money, the four stop at a radio broadcast tower where they record a song as the Soggy Bottom Boys. That night, the trio part ways with Tommy after their car is discovered by the police. Unbeknownst to them, the recording becomes a major hit.

Near a river, the group hears singing. They see three women washing clothes and singing. The women drug them with corn whiskey and they lose consciousness. Upon waking, Delmar finds Pete's clothes lying next to him, empty except for a toad. Delmar is convinced the women were Sirens and transformed Pete into the toad. Later, one-eyed Bible salesman Big Dan invites them for a picnic lunch, then mugs them and kills the toad.

On their way to Everett's home town, Everett and Delmar see Pete working on a chain gang. Upon arriving Everett confronts his wife Penny, who changed her last name and told his daughters he was dead. He gets into a fight with Vernon, her new "suitor." They then go to a movie theatre showing a film with Ted Healy and His Stooges where they discover Pete is still alive, part of a prison movie outing. Later that night, they sneak into Pete's holding cell and free him. As it turns out, the women had dragged Pete away and turned him in to the authorities. Under torture, Pete gave away the treasure's location to the police. Everett then confesses that there is no treasure. He made it up to convince the guys he was chained with to escape with him in order to stop his wife from getting married. Pete is enraged at Everett, because he had two weeks left on his original sentence, and will likely face fifty more years for the escape.

The trio stumble upon a rally of the Ku Klux Klan, who are planning to hang Tommy. The trio disguise themselves as Klansmen and move to rescue Tommy. However, Big Dan, a Klan member, reveals their identities. Chaos ensues, and the Grand Wizard reveals himself as Homer Stokes, a candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election. The trio rush Tommy away and cut the supports of a large burning cross, incinerating Big Dan.

Everett convinces Pete, Delmar and Tommy to help him win his wife back. They sneak into a Stokes campaign gala dinner she is attending, disguised as musicians. The group begins a performance of their radio hit. The crowd recognizes the song and goes wild. Homer recognizes them as the group who humiliated his mob. When he demands the group be arrested and reveals his white supremacist views, the crowd runs him out of town on a rail. Pappy O'Daniel, the incumbent candidate, seizes the opportunity, endorses the Soggy Bottom Boys and grants them full pardons. Penny agrees to marry Everett with the condition that he find her original ring.

The next morning, the group sets out to retrieve the ring, which is at a cabin in the valley which Everett had earlier claimed was the location of his treasure. The police, having learned of the place from Pete, arrest the group. Dismissing their claims of having received pardons, Sheriff Cooley orders them hanged. As Everett prays to God, the valley is flooded and they are saved. Tommy finds the ring in a desk that floats by, and they return to town. However, when Everett presents the ring to Penny, it turns out it was her aunt's ring. She declares that she will not marry him with that ring, but only her wedding ring which is still lost.

Othello

### Act I

Roderigo, a wealthy and dissolute gentleman, complains to his friend Iago, an ensign, that Iago has not told him about the secret marriage between Desdemona, the daughter of a senator named Brabantio, and Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army. Roderigo is upset because he loves Desdemona and had asked her father, Brabantio, for her hand in marriage.

Iago hates Othello for promoting a younger man named Cassio above him, whom Iago considers a less capable soldier than himself, and tells Roderigo that he plans to exploit Othello for his own advantage. Iago convinces Roderigo to wake Brabantio and tell him about his daughter's elopement. Meanwhile, Iago sneaks away to find Othello and warns him that Brabantio is coming for him.

Brabantio, provoked by Roderigo, is enraged and will not rest until he has confronted Othello, but he finds Othello's residence full of the Duke of Venice's guards, who prevent violence. News has arrived in Venice that the Turks are going to attack Cyprus, and Othello is therefore summoned to advise the senators. Brabantio has no option but to accompany Othello to the Duke's residence, where he accuses Othello of seducing Desdemona by witchcraft.

Othello defends himself before the Duke of Venice, Brabantio's kinsmen Lodovico and Gratiano, and various senators. Othello explains that Desdemona became enamoured of him for the sad and compelling stories he told of his life before Venice, not because of any witchcraft. The senate is satisfied once Desdemona confirms that she loves Othello, but Brabantio leaves saying that Desdemona will betray Othello: "Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see. She has deceived her father, and may thee," (Act I, Sc 3). Iago, still in the room, takes note of Brabantio's remark. By order of the Duke, Othello leaves Venice to command the Venetian armies against invading Turks on the island of Cyprus, accompanied by his new wife, his new lieutenant Cassio, his ensign Iago, and Iago's wife, Emilia, as Desdemona's attendant.

### Act II

The party arrives in Cyprus to find that a storm has destroyed the Turkish fleet. Othello orders a general celebration and leaves to consummate his marriage with Desdemona. In his absence, Iago gets Cassio drunk, and then persuades Roderigo to draw Cassio into a fight. Montano tries to calm down an angry and drunk Cassio and this leads to them fighting one another, resulting in Montano being injured. Othello reappears and questions the men as to what happened. Othello blames Cassio for the disturbance and strips him of his rank. Cassio, distraught, is then persuaded by Iago to ask Desdemona to persuade her husband to reinstate him. She then succeeds.

### Act III

Iago now persuades Othello to be suspicious of Cassio and Desdemona. When Desdemona drops a handkerchief (the first gift given to her by Othello), Emilia finds it, and gives it to her husband Iago, at his request, unaware of what he plans to do with it. Othello appears and, then being convinced by Iago of his wife's unfaithfulness with his captain, vows with Iago for the death of Desdemona and Cassio, after which he makes Iago his lieutenant.

### Act IV

Iago plants the handkerchief in Cassio's lodgings, then tells Othello to watch Cassio's reactions while Iago questions him. Iago goads Cassio on to talk about his affair with Bianca, a local courtesan, but whispers her name so quietly that Othello believes the two men are talking about Desdemona. Later, Bianca accuses Cassio of giving her a second-hand gift which he had received from another lover. Othello sees this, and Iago convinces him that Cassio received the handkerchief from Desdemona.

Enraged and hurt, Othello resolves to kill his wife and tells Iago to kill Cassio. Othello proceeds to make Desdemona's life miserable and strikes her in front of visiting Venetian nobles. Meanwhile, Roderigo complains that he has received no results from Iago in return for his money and efforts to win Desdemona, but Iago convinces him to kill Cassio.

### Act V

Roderigo, having been manipulated by Iago, attacks Cassio in the street after Cassio leaves Bianca's lodgings. Cassio wounds Roderigo. During the scuffle, Iago comes from behind Cassio and badly cuts his leg. In the darkness, Iago manages to hide his identity, and when Lodovico and Gratiano hear Cassio's cries for help, Iago joins them. When Cassio identifies Roderigo as one of his attackers, Iago secretly stabs Roderigo to stop him revealing the plot. Iago then accuses Bianca of the failed conspiracy to kill Cassio.

Othello confronts Desdemona, and then smothers her with a pillow. When Emilia arrives, Desdemona defends her husband before dying, and Othello accuses Desdemona of adultery. Emilia calls for help. The former governor Montano arrives with Gratiano and Iago. When Othello mentions the handkerchief as proof, Emilia realizes what her husband, Iago, has done, and she exposes him, whereupon Iago kills her. Othello, belatedly realising Desdemona's innocence, stabs Iago but not fatally, saying that Iago is a devil, and he would rather have him live the rest of his life in pain.

Iago refuses to explain his motives, vowing to remain silent from that moment on. Lodovico apprehends both Iago and Othello for the murders of Roderigo, Emilia, and Desdemona, but Othello commits suicide. Lodovico appoints Cassio as Othello's successor and exhorts him to punish Iago justly. He then denounces Iago for his actions and leaves to tell the others what has happened.

One Foot in the Grave

The series features the exploits, mishaps and misadventures of irascible early retiree Victor Meldrew, who, after being made redundant from his job as a security guard at the age of 60, finds himself at war with the world and everything in it. Meldrew, cursed with misfortune and always complaining, is married to long-suffering wife Margaret, who is often left exasperated by his many misfortunes.

Amongst other witnesses to Victor's wrath are tactless family friend Jean Warboys and next-door neighbours Patrick (Victor's nemesis) and Pippa Trench. Patrick often discovers Victor in inexplicably bizarre or compromising situations, leading him to believe he is insane. The Meldrews' neighbour on the other side, overly cheery charity worker Nick Swainey, also adds to Victor's frustration.

Although set in a traditional suburban setting, the show subverts this genre with a strong overtone of black comedy. Series One's "The Valley of Fear" is an episode which caused controversy, when Victor found a frozen cat in his freezer. Writer David Renwick also combined farce with elements of tragedy. For example, in the final episode, Victor is killed by a hit-and-run driver, and although there is no explicit reference that Victor and Margaret had children, the episode "Timeless Time" contained a reference to someone named Stuart; the strong implication being that they once had a son who had died as a child.

A number of episodes were also experimental in that they took place entirely in one setting. Such episodes include: Victor, Margaret and Mrs Warboys stuck in a traffic jam; Victor and Margaret in bed suffering insomnia; Victor left alone in the house waiting to see if he has to take part in jury service; Victor and Margaret having a long wait in their solicitor's waiting room; and Victor and Margaret trying to cope during a power cut on the hottest night of the year.

Despite Margaret's frequent exasperation with her husband's antics, the series shows the couple have a deep affection for one another.

Otaku no Video

The story begins in ''Otaku no Video 1982'', where the main character is an everyman character, Ken Kubo, living with his girlfriend Yoshiko and as a member of his college's tennis team, until introduced by his former friend Tanaka to a club of enthusiasts: a female illustrator, an information geek, a martial artist, and a weapons collector. Kubo soon joins them; and when Yoshiko abandons him, makes the wish to become the supreme enthusiast, under the name of ''Otaking''.

Kubo's quest continues in ''More Otaku no Video 1985'', set three years later, in which he creates his model kits, opens shops, and builds a factory in China. Later, he loses his fortune when one of his rivals (now married to Yoshiko) takes control of his enterprise; but Kubo and Tanaka, with hard-working artist Misuzu, gradually take over the anime industry with a 'magical girl' show, "Misty May". At the peak of their ambitions, Ken and Tanaka create Otakuland in 1999: the equivalent of Disneyland for otaku (the story suggests Otakuland to be located in the same city of Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, as the original Tokyo Disneyland.)

Many years later, Ken and Tanaka return to Otakuland in a post-apocalyptic submerged Japan and find its central structure, a giant robot, converted into a functional spaceship piloted by their old friends. Miraculously rejuvenated, they fly into space in search of "The Planet of Otaku".

Original Sin (2001 film)

''Original Sin'' is set in late 19th century Cuba during the Spanish rule, and flashes back and forth from the scene of a woman awaiting her execution while telling her story to a priest to the actual events of that story.

Luis Vargas (Antonio Banderas), a Cuban man, sends for American Julia Russell (Angelina Jolie) from Delaware to be his mail-order bride. Julia comes off the ship, looking nothing like her photos. Julia explains she wants more than a man who is only interested in a pretty face, so she substituted a plain-looking woman's photo. Luis also admits to deception; he has misled her into believing he is a poor clerk instead of a wealthy plantation owner. Julia says that they both have something in common: that both are not to be trusted. But they assure each other that they will try to understand and trust each other in life.

Luis and Julia wed in the church within hours of her setting foot in Cuba. Luis falls desperately in love with her. Meanwhile, Julia's sister Emily is worried. She sends an emotional letter asking about her welfare. Luis forces Julia to write back, fearing that if Julia continues to ignore Emily's letters, Emily will assume something terrible has befallen her sister, and she might send the authorities. Holding off as long as possible, Julia finally pens a letter to her sister.

Luis adds Julia to his business and personal bank accounts, giving her free rein to spend as she pleases. A detective, Walter Downs (Thomas Jane), arrives from Wilmington and tells Luis that he has been hired by Emily to find her sister Julia and would like to see her on the coming Sunday. Luis informs Julia about this, and she gets upset. Emily arrives in Cuba to meet Luis and shows the letter Julia wrote to her. She informs Luis that she believes Julia to be an impostor and that her sister may be dead. Luis discovers that Julia has taken nearly all of his fortune and teams up with Walter to look for her.

Luis finds Julia and discovers she is actually in league with Walter. Luis believes she loves him and lies to Walter, but when confronted, a fight breaks out, and Luis shoots Walter. Julia sends Luis to go and buy them tickets home, but it was a trick, and Walter is not dead. Julia appears to love Luis but fears Walter, so she and Luis run off to live secretly, with the supposedly dead Walter in pursuit. Walter turns out to be Julia (Bonny's) old lover and partner, Billy.

Luis throws away his promising future to be with Julia/Bonny. One night, Luis follows Julia/Bonny and discovers Walter/Billy is alive and that the two are still working together; she is apparently going to poison her husband that very night. He returns home to wait for her, and when she arrives, he reveals that he knows about the plan, confesses his love for her once more, and swallows the poisoned drink. Julia flees with the dying Luis, with Walter close behind. They run into him at a train station; Walter is furious that Julia has betrayed him. As Walter holds a knife to her throat, Luis shoots and wounds him, with Julia finishing him off.

Back in the ''mise en scene'', Julia finishes her story and asks the priest to pray with her. The next morning the guards come to her cell to take her to her execution, only to find the priest kneeling in her clothing.

In Morocco, Julia is watching a card game. She walks around the table occupied by gamblers - including Luis - and thanks them for allowing her to watch. As Julia signals Luis about the other players' cards, he begins telling them the story of how they got there.

Orgy of the Dead

The film has "little to no" storyline. About 70 minutes of the film's running time features topless female dancers without dialogue.

The film opens with two muscle-bound men dressed in loincloths approaching a crypt. They open the doors, revealing a coffin. They remove the lid and exit the tomb. Then, the coffin's inhabitant (Criswell) sits up to deliver an opening narration.

A lone Chevrolet Corvair drives down a California desert road. Its passengers, Bob and Shirley, are arguing over the decision to use this night to search for a cemetery. Bob is a horror writer who hopes that the scene of a cemetery at night will bring him inspiration. The conversation ends when Bob accidentally drives the car off the road and over a cliff.

The next scene opens to a nocturnal image of a fog-shrouded cemetery. The lonely figure of the Emperor walks towards a marble altar, sits, and then summons his "Princess of the Night," the Black Ghoul, who appears and bows before him. The Emperor warns that if the night's entertainment fails to please him, he will banish the souls of the entertainers to eternal damnation, indicating that he is an all-powerful demonic being.

As the full moon appears, the Black Ghoul summons the first dancer of the night, a Native American woman. The Black Ghoul explains that this woman loved fire, and that she and her lovers died in flames. The woman dances and strips before the flames of the cemetery. The Black Ghoul then introduces the second dancer of the night, a streetwalker in life. While the woman dances, Bob and Shirley make their way to the cemetery and start observing the dance from a distance. Shirley suspects that they are observing a college initiation, though Bob seriously doubts her theory.

The Emperor himself summons the third dancer, a woman who worshiped gold. The Golden Girl dances in her turn, and the Emperor instructs his loin-clothed servants to reward her with gold. The supposed reward is soon revealed to be a punishment, as the servants place her in a cauldron with liquid gold. What emerges from the pot is a golden statue of the living woman who entered. The servants transport the immobile statue to a nearby crypt.

A werewolf and a mummy appear and seize the intruding young couple. They are brought before the Emperor, who decides to postpone deciding their fate. The intruders are tied up, side by side, and allowed to continue watching the dances. Next, the Black Ghoul introduces the fourth dancer, a "Cat Woman" (Texas Starr). She is depicted as a woman dressed in a leopard costume, which exposes her chest area. As she dances, a servant follows her around and thrashes her with a bullwhip, offering sadomasochism to the spectators.

Next, the Emperor calls for a Slave Girl to be whipped for his amusement. The slave wears a tunic and is chained to a wall. Following her torture session, the Slave Girl breaks free and becomes the fifth dancer of the night. Later, the Black Ghoul exhibits a fascination with Shirley and scratches a mark on her. She draws a knife and seems about to kill Shirley when the Emperor decides it is not yet time for the intruders to join them. The female Ghoul reluctantly obeys.

The Emperor is puzzled when a human skull appears instead of the next dancer. The Black Ghoul explains it symbolizes the sixth dancer, who loved bullfighting and matadors. She used to dance over their demise, and now it is time to dance over her own. The dancer of apparent Spanish/Mexican heritage (Stephanie Jones) appears to perform. The Emperor and Ghoul briefly discuss the past of the dancer, who came to them on the Day of the Dead. The seventh dancer appears dressed in Polynesian garments. The Black Ghoul describes her as a worshiper of snakes, smoke, and flames. Plus, a rattlesnake is depicted along with her dance. The camera shifts to the mummy and the werewolf. The mummy voices his dislike of snakes and recalls the death of Cleopatra. He informs his companion that ancient Egypt had many snakes, which were the stuff of nightmares.

Next, the Emperor expresses his boredom and demands "unusual" entertainment, while the Black Ghoul notes that the night is almost over. She reminds her superior that they will be gone at the first sight of the morning sun. They proceed to argue over Shirley's fate. The argument ends with the introduction of the eighth dancer, a woman who murdered her husband on their wedding night. She dances with the skeleton of her spouse. The argument over Shirley then resumes, as the Ghoul claims her for her own. The Emperor feels the need to assert his own authority over the Black Ghoul.

The ninth dancer was a zombie in life and remains zombie-like in death. The tenth and final dancer is introduced as one who died for feathers, fur, and fluff. She starts her dance in clothing matching this style. When the last dance ends, the Emperor finally offers Shirley to the Ghoul. The Ghoul briefly dances herself as she prepares to claim her prize, but dawn arrives. The Emperor and all his undead are reduced to bones. The final scene portrays Bob and Shirley waking up at the accident scene, surrounded by paramedics, suggesting it was all a dream. Criswell appears in his coffin to offer parting words to the audience.

Paths of Glory

The film begins with a voiceover describing the trench warfare situation of World War I up to 1916. In a château, General Georges Broulard, a member of the French General Staff, asks his subordinate, the ambitious General Mireau, to take a well-defended German position called the Anthill. Mireau initially refuses, citing the impossibility of success, but when Broulard mentions a potential promotion, Mireau quickly convinces himself the attack will succeed.

Mireau proceeds to walk through the trenches, asking several soldiers, "Ready to kill more Germans?" He throws a private out of the regiment for showing signs of shell shock. Mireau leaves the detailed planning of the attack to Colonel Dax of the 701st regiment, despite Dax's protests that the only result of the attack will be to weaken the French Army with heavy losses for no benefit.

Prior to the attack, a drunken lieutenant named Roget, leading a night-time scouting mission, sends one of his two men ahead. Overcome by fear while waiting for the man's return, Roget lobs a grenade and retreats. Corporal Paris, the other soldier on the mission, finds the body of the scout, who has been killed by the grenade, and confronts Roget. Roget denies any wrongdoing and falsifies his report to Colonel Dax.

The next morning, the attack on the Anthill is a failure. Dax leads the first wave of soldiers over the top into no man's land under heavy fire. None of the men reach the German trenches, and B Company refuses to leave their own trench after seeing the first wave sustain heavy casualties. Mireau, enraged, orders his artillery to open fire on them to force them onto the battlefield. The artillery commander refuses to fire without written confirmation of the order. Meanwhile, Dax returns to the trenches and tries to rally B Company to join the battle, but as he climbs out of the trench, the body of a dead French soldier knocks him down.

At a meeting with Broulard and Dax, to deflect blame for the attack's failure, Mireau decides to court-martial 100 of the soldiers for cowardice. Broulard persuades him to reduce the number to three, one from each company. Following the meeting, Mireau and Broulard encounter the artillery commander who defied Mireau's illegal order to fire on his own men during the attack. Mireau recommends the artillery officer be transferred in order to cover up his crime. Corporal Paris is chosen because his commanding officer Roget wishes to keep him from testifying about Roget's actions in the scouting mission. Private Ferol is picked by his commanding officer because he is a "social undesirable." The last man, Private Arnaud, is chosen randomly by lot, despite having been cited for bravery twice previously.

Dax, who was a criminal defense lawyer in civilian life, volunteers to defend the men at their court-martial. The trial however, is a farce. There is no formal written indictment, a court stenographer is not present, and the court refuses to admit evidence that would support acquittal. In his closing statement, Dax denounces the proceedings: "Gentlemen of the court, to find these men guilty would be a crime to haunt each of you till the day you die." Nonetheless, the three are sentenced to death.

The night before the execution, Dax confronts Broulard at a ball, with sworn statements by witnesses attesting to Mireau's order to shell his own trenches, in an attempt to blackmail the General Staff into sparing the three men. Broulard takes the statements but brusquely dismisses Dax.

The next morning, the three men are taken out to be shot by firing squad. Dax, suspecting Roget for his nomination of Paris, forces Roget to lead the executions. While a sobbing Ferol is blindfolded, Paris refuses Roget's offer of a blindfold and reacts ambiguously to Roget's meek apology. Arnaud, meanwhile, is so badly injured after having started a fight in prison that he must be carried out in a stretcher and tied to the post. All three men are executed.

Following the executions, Broulard breakfasts with the gloating Mireau. Broulard reveals he has invited Dax to attend and tells Mireau that he will be investigated for the order to fire on his own men. Mireau storms out, protesting that he has been made a scapegoat. Broulard then blithely offers Mireau's command to Dax, assuming that Dax's attempts to stop the executions were a ploy to gain Mireau's job. Discovering that Dax was in fact sincere, Broulard rebukes him for his idealism, while the disgusted Dax calls Broulard a "degenerate, sadistic old man."

After the execution, some of Dax's soldiers are carousing at an inn. They become more subdued as they listen to a captive German girl sing a sentimental folk song. Dax decides to leave without informing the men that they have been ordered to return to the front. His face hardens as he returns to his quarters.

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

The story begins in a future world where global temperatures have risen so high that in most of the world it is unsafe to be outside without special cooling gear during daylight hours. In a desperate bid to preserve humanity and ease population burdens on Earth, the UN has initiated a "draft" for colonizing the nearby planets, where conditions are so horrific and primitive that the unwilling colonists have fallen prey to a form of escapism involving the use of an illegal drug (Can-D) in concert with "layouts." Layouts are physical props intended to simulate a sort of alternative reality where life is easier than either the grim existence of the colonists in their marginal off-world colonies, or even Earth, where global warming has progressed to the point that Antarctica is prime vacation resort territory. The illegal drug Can-D allows people to "share" their experience of the "Perky Pat" (the name of the main female character in the simulated world) layouts. This "sharing" has caused a pseudo-religious cult or series of cults to grow up around the layouts and the use of the drug.

Up to the point where the novel begins, New York City-based Perky Pat (or P.P.) Layouts, Inc., has held a monopoly on this product, as well as on the illegal trade in the drug Can-D which makes the shared hallucinations possible.

The novel opens shortly after Barney Mayerson, P.P. Layouts' top precog, has received a "draft notice" from the UN for involuntary resettlement as a colonist on Mars. Mayerson is sleeping with his assistant, Roni Fugate, but remains conflicted about the divorce, which he himself initiated, from his first wife Emily, a ceramic pot artist. Meanwhile, Emily's second husband tries to sell her pot designs to P.P. Layouts as possible accessories for the Perky Pat virtual worlds—but Barney, recognizing them as Emily's, rejects them out of spite.

Meanwhile, the UN rescues Palmer Eldritch's ship from a crash on Pluto. Leo Bulero, head of P.P. Layouts and an "evolved" human (meaning someone who has undergone expensive genetic treatments by a German "doctor" which are supposed to push the client "forward" on an evolutionary scale, and which result in gross physical, as well as mental, modifications), hears rumors that Eldritch discovered an alien hallucinogen in the Prox system with similar properties to Can-D, and that he plans to market it as "Chew-Z," with UN approval, on off-world colonies. However Chew-Z does not require the prop of the external layouts and seems to have certain undefined qualities that make the use of Chew-Z even more addictive than Can-D has been. This would effectively destroy P.P. Layouts. Bulero tries to contact Eldritch but he is quarantined at a UN hospital. Both Mayerson and Fugate have precognitions of reports that Bulero is going to be responsible for murdering Eldritch.

Under the guise of a reporter, Bulero travels to Eldritch's estate on the Moon, where Eldritch holds a press conference. Bulero is kidnapped and forced to take Chew-Z intravenously. He enters a psychic netherworld over which both he and Eldritch seemingly have some control. After wrangling about business with Eldritch, Bulero travels to what appears to be Earth at some time in the not-too-distant future. Evolved humans identify him as a ghost and show him a monument to himself commemorating his role in the death of Eldritch, an "enemy of the Sol System."

Bulero returns to Earth and fires Mayerson because Mayerson was afraid to travel to the Moon to rescue him. Mayerson, in despair, accepts his UN conscription to Mars but Bulero recruits him as a double agent. Mayerson is to inject himself with a toxin after taking Chew-Z in a plot to deceive the UN into thinking Chew-Z is harmful and cause them to ban it.

On Mars, Mayerson buys some Chew-Z from Eldritch, who appears in holographic form. Mayerson tries to hallucinate a world where he is still with Emily but finds that he does not control his apparent hallucination. Like Bulero, he finds himself in the future. Mayerson arrives in New York two years hence where he speaks with Bulero, Fugate and his future self about the death of Palmer Eldritch.

He also encounters several manifestations of Eldritch, identifiable by their robotic right hand, artificial eyes, and steel teeth. Eldritch offers to help Mayerson become whatever he wants, but is so controlling of the Chew-Z alternative reality that Mayerson ultimately decides he'd rather be dead than continue to be manipulated by Eldritch. When a despairing Mayerson chooses death, he finds himself apparently forced into Eldritch's body right at the point in the timeline where Bulero is ready to shoot a torpedo at Eldritch's ship. It appears that Eldritch's plan is to preserve his own life essence housed in Mayerson's body while allowing Mayerson himself to die in Eldritch's place. Eldritch, meanwhile, intends to live on in Mayerson's form and enjoy the simple if arduous life of a Martian colonist. Mayerson, stuck in Eldritch's body and mistaken for him, is indeed nearly killed by Bulero in the near future, but before the fatal shot can be fired he is awakened from his Chew-Z trance in the present by Bulero, who has just arrived on Mars.

Bulero is willing to take Mayerson back to Earth but refuses to after learning that Mayerson did not inject himself with the toxin. Mayerson is now confident that Bulero will kill Eldritch, so the sacrifice of taking the toxin in order to ruin Eldritch's business is unnecessary; but he does not try to convince Bulero of this. Later, Mayerson discusses his experience with a neo-Christian colonist and they conclude that either Eldritch became a god in the Prox system or some god-like being has taken his place. Mayerson is convinced some aspect of Eldritch is still inside him, and that as long as he refuses to take Chew-Z again, it is Eldritch who will actually be killed by Bulero in the near future; Mayerson is half-resigned, half-hopeful about taking on the life of a Martian colonist without reprieve. Mayerson considers the possibility of Eldritch being what humans have always thought of as a god, but inimical, or perhaps merely an inferior aspect of a bigger and better sort of god.

The novel has an ambiguous ending, with Bulero heading back toward Earth, and apparent proliferation of Eldritch's cyborg body 'stigmata', which may mean that Bulero is still trapped in Eldritch's hallucinatory domain, or that Chew-Z is becoming increasingly popular among Terrans and Martian colonists.

Time Out of Joint

Cover of 1977 Belmont paperback edition

Ragle Gumm lives in the year 1959 in a quiet American suburb. His unusual profession consists of repeatedly winning the cash prize in a local newspaper contest called "Where Will The Little Green Man Be Next?". Gumm's 1959 has some differences from ours: the Tucker car is in production, AM/FM radios are scarce to non-existent, and Marilyn Monroe is a complete unknown. As the novel opens, strange things begin to happen to Gumm. A soft-drink stand disappears, replaced by a small slip of paper with the words "SOFT-DRINK STAND" printed on it in block letters. Intriguing little pieces of the real 1959 turn up: a magazine article on Marilyn Monroe, a telephone book with non-operational exchanges listed and radios hidden away in someone else's house. People with no apparent connection to Gumm, including military pilots using aircraft transceivers, refer to him by name. Few other characters notice these or experience similar anomalies; the sole exception is Gumm's supposed brother-in-law, Victor "Vic" Nielson, in whom he confides. A neighborhood woman, Mrs. Keitelbein, invites him to a civil defense class where he sees a model of a futuristic underground military factory. He has the unshakeable feeling he's been inside that building many times before.

Confusion gradually mounts for Gumm. His neighbor Bill Black knows far more about these events than he admits, and, observing this, begins worrying: "Suppose Ragle [Gumm] is becoming sane again?" In fact, Gumm does become sane, and the deception surrounding him (erected to protect and exploit him) begins to unravel.

Gumm tries to escape the town and is turned back by Kafkaesque obstructions. He sees a copy of ''Time'' magazine, with himself on the cover as Man of the Year, in a military uniform, at the factory depicted in the model. He tries a second time to escape, this time with Vic, and succeeds. He learns that his idyllic town is a constructed reality designed to protect him from the frightening fact that he lives on a then-future Earth (circa 1998) that is at war against lunar colonists who are fighting for a permanent lunar settlement, politically independent from Earth.

Gumm has a unique ability to predict where the colonists' nuclear strikes will be aimed. Previously Gumm did this work for the military, but then he defected to the colonists' side and planned to secretly emigrate to the Moon. But before this could happen, he began retreating into a fantasy world based largely upon the relatively idyllic surroundings of his extreme youth. He was no longer able to shoulder his responsibility as Earth's lone protector from Lunar-launched nuclear offensives. The fake town was thereby created within Gumm's mind to accommodate and rationalize his retreat to childhood so that he could continue predicting nuclear strikes in the guise of submitting entries to a harmless newspaper contest and without the ethical qualms involved with being on the "wrong" side of a civil war. While Gumm regressed by himself to a 1950s mindset, the rest of the town with a few exceptions like Black were all put in a similar state artificially, explaining why hardly anyone else could perceive anomalies.

When Gumm finally remembers his true personal history, he decides to emigrate to the Moon after all because he feels that exploration and migration, as basic human impulses, should never be denied to people by any national or planetary government. Vic rejects this belief, referring to the colonists essentially as aggressors and terrorists, and returns to the simulated town- which has lost its ''raison d'etre'' because of Gumm's escape from its environs. The book ends with some hope for peace, because the Lunar colonists are more willing to negotiate than Earth's "One Happy World" regime has been telling its citizens.

A Scanner Darkly

The protagonist is Bob Arctor, member of a household of drug users, who is also living a double life as an undercover police agent assigned to spy on Arctor's household. Arctor shields his identity from those in the drug subculture and from the police. (The requirement that narcotics agents remain anonymous, to avoid collusion and other forms of corruption, becomes a critical plot point late in the book.) While posing as a drug user, Arctor becomes addicted to "Substance D" (also referred to as "Slow Death", "Death" or "D"), a powerful psychoactive drug. A conflict is Arctor's love for Donna, a drug dealer, through whom he intends to identify high-level dealers of Substance D.

When performing his work as an undercover agent, Arctor goes by the name "Fred" and wears a "scramble suit" that conceals his identity from other officers. Then he is able to sit in a police facility and observe his housemates through "holo-scanners", audio-visual surveillance devices that are placed throughout the house. Arctor's use of the drug causes the two hemispheres of his brain to function independently or "compete". When Arctor sees himself in the videos saved by the scanners, he does not realize that it is him. Through a series of drug and psychological tests, Arctor's superiors at work discover that his addiction has made him incapable of performing his job as a narcotics agent. They do not know his identity because he wears the scramble suit, but when his police supervisor suggests to him that he might be Bob Arctor, he is confused and thinks it cannot be possible.

Donna takes Arctor to "New-Path", a rehabilitation clinic, just as Arctor begins to experience the symptoms of Substance D withdrawal. It is revealed that Donna has been a narcotics agent all along, working as part of a police operation to infiltrate New-Path and determine its funding source. Without his knowledge, Arctor has been selected to penetrate the organization. As part of the rehab program, Arctor is renamed "Bruce" and forced to participate in cruel group-dynamic games, intended to break the will of the patients.

The story ends with Bruce working at a New-Path farming commune, where he is experiencing a serious neurocognitive deficit, after withdrawing from Substance D. Although considered by his handlers to be nothing more than a walking shell of a man, "Bruce" manages to spot rows of blue flowers growing hidden among rows of corn and realizes that the blue flowers are ''Mors ontologica'', the source of Substance D. The book ends with Bruce hiding a flower in his shoe to give to his "friends"—undercover police agents posing as recovering addicts at the Santa Ana New-Path facility—on Thanksgiving.

Ubik

By the year 1992, humanity has colonized the Moon and psychic powers are common. The protagonist, Joe Chip, is a debt-ridden technician working for Runciter Associates, a "prudence organization" employing "inertials"—people with the ability to negate the powers of telepaths and "precogs"—to enforce the privacy of clients. The company is run by Glen Runciter, assisted by his deceased wife Ella who is kept in a state of "half-life", a form of cryonic suspension that allows the deceased limited consciousness and ability to communicate. While consulting with Ella, Runciter discovers that her consciousness is being invaded by another half-lifer named Jory Miller.

When business magnate Stanton Mick hires Runciter Associates to secure his lunar facilities from alleged psychic intrusion, Runciter assembles a team of 11 of his best inertials, including recent hire Pat Conley, a mysterious girl with the unique psychic ability to undo events by changing the past. Runciter and Chip travel with the group to Stanton Mick's Moon base, where they discover that the assignment is a trap, presumably set by the company's main adversary, Ray Hollis, who leads an organization of psychics. A bomb blast apparently kills Runciter without significantly harming the others. They rush back to Earth to place him into half-life, but they cannot establish contact with him so his body is set to be buried.

From the moment of the explosion, the group begins to experience shifts in reality. Many objects they come into contact with (especially cigarettes) are much older than they should be, some being older types of the same object, and are rapidly deteriorating. They gradually find themselves moving into the past, eventually anchoring in 1939. At the same time, they find themselves surrounded by "manifestations" of Runciter; for example, his face appears on their money. As the novel progresses, members of the group one by one begin to feel tired and cold, then suddenly shrivel and die. Joe Chip attempts to make sense of what is happening and discovers two contradictory messages from Runciter, one stating that he is alive and they are dead, and another claiming to have been recorded by him while he was still alive. The latter message advertises Ubik, a store-bought product which can be used to temporarily reverse deterioration and which often appears as a can of aerosol spray. Chip deduces that they may have all died in the blast and are now linked together in half-life, and unsuccessfully tries to get hold of Ubik.

After receiving another message and travelling to Runciter's hometown, Joe Chip accuses Pat Conley of working for Hollis and causing the deterioration with her ability, and while he himself is withering away, she confirms this. As she leaves him to die, he is saved by Runciter, who sprays him with Ubik and tells him that the group is indeed in half-life and he himself is alive and trying to help them, though he does not know where Ubik comes from. As Runciter disappears, Jory Miller reveals himself to Chip, telling him that he, not Conley, has now killed off the entire group (including Conley), as he "eats" half-lifers to sustain himself, and that the entire reality they are experiencing is created and maintained by him. However, Chip is temporarily protected from being consumed through the effect of Ubik, and leaves Jory. As he at last begins to deteriorate again, he meets Ella, who saves him by granting him a life-long supply of Ubik, and instructs him to stay half-alive to assist Runciter after she herself reincarnates. It is implied that Jory has allies in the real world who help him find other half-lifers to consume in order to prolong his own half-life. Ubik is claimed to have been developed by Ella and several other half-lifers as a defense against Jory.

Each chapter is introduced by a commercial advertising Ubik as a different product serving a specific use. The last chapter is introduced by Ubik claiming that it has created and directed the universe, and that its real name is unknown and unspoken. In this short chapter, Runciter, who is in the "living" world mourning the loss of his best employees, discovers coins showing Chip's face, and feels that this is "just the beginning".

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter for the San Francisco Police Department, is assigned to "retire" (kill) six androids of the new and highly intelligent Nexus-6 model which have recently escaped from Mars and traveled to Earth. These androids are made of organic matter so similar to a human's that only a posthumous "bone marrow analysis" can independently prove the difference, making them almost impossible to distinguish from real people. Deckard hopes this mission will earn him enough bounty money to buy a live animal to replace his lone electric sheep to comfort his depressed wife Iran. Deckard visits the Rosen Association's headquarters in Seattle to confirm the accuracy of the latest empathy test meant to identify incognito androids. Deckard suspects the test may not be capable of distinguishing the latest Nexus-6 models from genuine human beings, and it appears to give a false positive on his host in Seattle, Rachael Rosen, meaning the police have potentially been executing human beings. The Rosen Association attempts to blackmail Deckard to get him to drop the case, but Deckard retests Rachael and determines that Rachael is, indeed, an android, which she ultimately admits.

Deckard soon meets a Soviet police contact who turns out to be one of the Nexus-6 renegades in disguise. Deckard kills the android, then flies off to kill his next target, an android living in disguise as an opera singer. Meeting her backstage, Deckard attempts to administer the empathy test but she calls the police. Failing to recognize Deckard as a bounty hunter, the cops arrest and detain him at a police station he has never heard of, filled with officers whom he is surprised to have never met. An official named Garland accuses Deckard himself of being an android with implanted memories. After a series of mysterious revelations at the station, Deckard ponders the ethical and philosophical questions his line of work raises regarding android intelligence, empathy and what it means to be human. Garland, pointing a gun at Deckard, then reveals that the entire station is a sham, claiming that both he and Phil Resch, the station's resident bounty hunter, are androids. Resch shoots Garland in the head, escaping with Deckard back to the opera singer, whom Resch brutally kills in cold blood when she alludes that he himself may be an android. Desperate to know the truth, Resch asks Deckard to administer the empathy test on him, which confirms that he is actually human, if a particularly ruthless one. Deckard then tests himself, confirming that he is human but has a sense of empathy for certain androids.

Deckard is now able to buy his wife Iran an authentic Nubian goat with his commission. Later, his supervisor insists that he visit an abandoned apartment building where the three remaining android fugitives are assumed to be hiding. Experiencing a vision of the prophet-like Mercer confusingly telling him to proceed, despite the immorality of the mission, Deckard calls on Rachael Rosen again since her knowledge of android psychology may aid his investigation. Rachael declines to help, but reluctantly agrees to meet Deckard at a hotel in exchange for him abandoning the case. At the hotel, she reveals that one of the fugitive androids is the same exact model as herself, meaning that he will have to shoot down an android that looks exactly like her. Despite having initial doubts by Rachael, Rachael and Deckard end up having sex, after which they confess their love for one another. Rachael reveals she has slept with many bounty hunters, having been programmed to do so in order to dissuade them from their missions. Deckard threatens to kill her but holds back at the last moment before he leaves for the abandoned apartment building.

Meanwhile, the three remaining Nexus-6 android fugitives plan how they can outwit Deckard. The building's only other inhabitant, John R. Isidore, a radioactively damaged and intellectually below-average human, attempts to befriend them, but is shocked when they callously torture and mutilate a rare spider he discovers. They all watch a television program which presents definitive evidence that the entire theology of Mercerism is a hoax. Deckard enters the building, experiencing strange, supernatural premonitions of Mercer notifying him of an ambush. When the androids attack him first, Deckard is legally justified as he shoots down all three without testing them beforehand. Isidore is devastated and Deckard is soon rewarded for a record number of Nexus-6 kills in a single day. When Deckard returns home, he finds Iran grieving because, while he was away, Rachael Rosen stopped by and killed their goat.

Deckard travels to an uninhabited, obliterated region of Oregon to reflect. He climbs a hill and is hit by falling rocks, when he realizes this is an experience eerily similar to Mercer's martyrdom. He stumbles abruptly upon what he thinks is a real toad (an animal thought to be extinct) but, when he returns home with it, Iran discovers it's just electrical. Deckard is crestfallen and Iran feels guilty about revealing this to him, but then Deckard decides that the electrical animals have their lives too. As he goes to sleep, she prepares to care for the electric toad on his behalf.

Radio Free Albemuth

In this alternate history, the corrupt United States president Ferris F. Fremont (FFF for 666, ‘F’ being the 6th letter in the alphabet) becomes Chief Executive in the late 1960s following Lyndon Johnson's administration. The character is best described as an amalgam of Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon, who abrogates civil liberties and human rights through positing a conspiracy theory centered on a (presumably) fictitious subversive organization known as "Aramchek". In addition to this, he is associated with a right-wing populist movement called "Friends of the American People" (FAPers).

The President's paranoia and opportunism lead to the establishment of a real resistance movement that is organized through narrow-beam radio transmissions from a mysterious alien near-Earth satellite by a superintelligent, extraterrestrial, but less than omnipotent being (or network) named VALIS.

Like its successor ''VALIS'', this novel is autobiographical. Dick himself is a major character, though fictitious protagonist Nicholas Brady serves as a vehicle for Dick's alleged gnostic theophany on February 11, 1974. In addition, Sadassa Silvia is a character who claims that Ferris Fremont is actually a communist covert agent recruited by Sadassa's mother when Fremont was still a teenager.

As with ''VALIS'', ''Radio Free Albemuth'' deals with Dick's highly personal style of Christianity (or Gnosticism). It further examines the moral and ethical repercussions of informing on trusted friends for the authorities. Also prominent is Dick's dislike of the Republican Party, satirizing Nixon's America as a Stalinist or neo-fascist police state. Fremont eventually captures and imprisons Dick and Brady after the latter attempts to produce and distribute a record that contains subliminal messages of revolt against the current dictatorship. Brady and Silvia are executed, and Dick narrates the concluding passage about his life in a concentration camp, while his supposedly latest work is actually penned by a ghost writer and regime-approved hack. Suddenly, however, he hears music blaring from a transistor radio which contains the same subliminal message. He and his friends, it turns out, were just a decoy set up by VALIS to detour the government from stopping a much more popular A-List band from releasing a similar record with a better-established recording company. As Dick realizes this and hears youngsters repeating the lyrics, he realizes that salvation may lie within the hearts and minds of the next generation.

Psycho (1960 film)

During a Friday afternoon tryst in a Phoenix hotel, real estate secretary Marion Crane and her boyfriend Sam Loomis discuss their inability to get married because of Sam's debts. Marion returns to work, steals a cash payment of $40,000 entrusted to her for deposit, and sets off to drive to Sam's home in Fairvale, California. Marion hurriedly trades her car en route, arousing suspicion from both the car dealer and a California Highway Patrol officer.

Marion stops for the night at the Bates Motel, located off the main highway, and hides the stolen money inside a newspaper. Proprietor Norman Bates descends from a large house overlooking the motel, registers Marion under an assumed name, and invites her to dine with him. After Norman returns to his house, Marion overhears Norman arguing with his mother about Marion's presence. Norman returns with a light meal and apologizes for his mother's outbursts. Norman discusses his hobby as a taxidermist, his mother's "illness," and how people have a "private trap" they want to escape. Marion decides to drive back to Phoenix in the morning and return the stolen money. As Marion showers, a shadowy figure in a dress appears and stabs her to death. Soon afterward, Norman cleans up the murder scene, putting Marion's body, belongings, and the hidden cash in her car, and sinks it in a swamp.

Marion's sister Lila arrives in Fairvale a week later, tells Sam about the theft, and demands to know her whereabouts. He denies knowing anything about her disappearance. A private investigator named Arbogast approaches them, saying that he has been hired to retrieve the money. Arbogast stops at the Bates Motel and questions Norman, whose nervous behavior and inconsistent answers arouse his suspicion. He examines the guest register and discovers from her handwriting that Marion spent a night in the motel. When Arbogast learns that Marion had spoken to Norman's mother, Arbogast asks to speak to her, but Norman refuses it. Arbogast updates Sam and Lila about his search and promises to phone again in an hour. After he enters the Bates home to search for Norman's mother, the shadowy figure emerges from the bedroom and stabs him to death.

Sam visits the motel when he and Lila hear nothing from Arbogast. He sees a figure in the house whom he assumes is Norman's mother. Lila and Sam alert the local sheriff, who tells them Norman's mother died in a murder-suicide ten years earlier. The sheriff suggests Arbogast lied to Sam and Lila so he could pursue Marion and the money. Convinced that something happened to Arbogast, Lila and Sam drive to the motel. Sam distracts Norman in the office while Lila sneaks into the house. Suspicious, Norman becomes agitated and knocks Sam unconscious. As he goes to the house, Lila hides in the fruit cellar, where she discovers the mother's mummified body. She screams, and Norman, wearing women's clothes and a wig, enters the cellar and tries to stab her. Sam appears and subdues him.

At the police station, a psychiatrist explains that Norman killed his mother and her lover ten years earlier out of jealousy. Unable to bear the guilt, Norman mummified his mother's corpse and began treating it as if she were still alive. He recreated his mother as an alternate personality, as jealous and possessive towards Norman as he felt about his mother. When Norman is attracted to a woman, "Mother" takes over. He had killed two other young women before Marion. The psychiatrist concludes that "Mother" has now submerged Norman's personality. Norman sits in a jail cell and hears his mother saying the murders were all his doing. Marion's car is retrieved from the swamp.

Pride and Prejudice

In the early 19th century, the Bennet family live at their Longbourn estate, situated near the village of Meryton in Hertfordshire, England. Mrs. Bennet's greatest desire is to marry off her five daughters in order to secure their futures. The arrival of Mr. Bingley, a rich bachelor who rents the neighbouring Netherfield estate, gives her hope that one of her daughters might contract an advantageous marriage, because "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife".

At a ball, the family is introduced to the Netherfield party, including Mr. Bingley, his two sisters and Mr. Darcy, his dearest friend. Mr. Bingley's friendly and cheerful manner earns him popularity among the guests. He appears interested in Jane, the eldest Bennet daughter. Mr. Darcy, reputed to be twice as wealthy as Mr Bingley, is haughty and aloof, causing a decided dislike of him. He declines to dance with Elizabeth, the second-eldest Bennet daughter, as she is "not handsome enough". Although she jokes about it with her friend, Elizabeth is deeply offended. Despite this first impression, Mr. Darcy secretly begins to find himself drawn to Elizabeth as they continue to encounter each other at social events, appreciating her wit and frankness.

Mr. Collins, the heir to the Longbourn estate, visits the Bennet family with the intention of finding a wife among the five girls under the advice of his patroness Lady Catherine de Bourgh, also revealed to be Mr. Darcy's aunt. He decides to pursue Elizabeth. The Bennet family meet the charming army officer George Wickham, who tells Elizabeth in confidence Mr. Darcy's horrible past actions in his regards. Elizabeth, blinded by her prejudice toward Mr. Darcy, believes him.

Elizabeth dances with Mr. Darcy at a ball, where Mrs. Bennet hints loudly that she expects Jane and Bingley to become engaged. Elizabeth rejects Mr. Collins' marriage proposal, to her mother's fury and her father's relief. Mr. Collins instead proposes to Charlotte Lucas, a friend of Elizabeth. Having heard Mrs. Bennet's words at the ball and disapproving of the marriage, Mr. Darcy joins Mr. Bingley in a trip to London and, with the help of his sisters, convinces him not to return to Netherfield. A heartbroken Jane visits her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner in London to raise her spirits, while Elizabeth's hatred for Mr. Darcy grows as she suspects he was responsible for Mr Bingley's departure.

In the spring, Elizabeth visits Charlotte and Mr. Collins in Kent. Elizabeth and her hosts are invited to Rosings Park, Lady Catherine's home. Mr. Darcy and his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, are also visiting Rosings Park. Fitzwilliam tells Elizabeth how Mr. Darcy recently saved a friend, presumably Bingley, from an undesirable match. Elizabeth realises that the prevented engagement was to Jane. Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, declaring his love for her despite her low social connections. She is shocked, as she was unaware of Mr. Darcy's interest, and rejects him angrily, saying that he is the last person she would ever marry and that she could never love a man who caused her sister such unhappiness; she further accuses him of treating Wickham unjustly. Mr. Darcy brags about his success in separating Bingley and Jane and sarcastically dismisses the accusation regarding Wickham without addressing it.

Mr. Darcy gives Elizabeth a letter, explaining that Wickham, the son of his late father's steward, had refused the "living" his father had arranged for him and was instead given money for it. Wickham quickly squandered the money and tried to elope with Darcy's 15-year-old sister, Georgiana, for her considerable dowry. Mr. Darcy also writes that he separated Jane and Bingley because he believed her indifferent to Bingley and because of the lack of propriety displayed by her family. Elizabeth is ashamed by her family's behaviour and her own prejudice against Mr. Darcy.

Months later, Elizabeth accompanies the Gardiners on a tour of Derbyshire. They visit Pemberley, Darcy's estate. When Mr. Darcy returns unexpectedly, he is exceedingly gracious with Elizabeth and the Gardiners. Elizabeth is surprised by Darcy's behaviour and grows fond of him, even coming to regret rejecting his proposal. She receives news that her sister Lydia has run off with Wickham. She tells Mr. Darcy, then departs in haste. After an agonising interim, Wickham agrees to marry Lydia. She visits the family and tells Elizabeth that Mr. Darcy was at her wedding. Though Mr. Darcy had sworn everyone involved to secrecy, Mrs. Gardiner now feels obliged to inform Elizabeth that he secured the match, at great expense and trouble to himself.

Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy return to Netherfield. Jane accepts Mr. Bingley's proposal. Lady Catherine, having heard rumours that Elizabeth intends to marry Mr. Darcy, visits her and demands she promise never to accept Mr. Darcy's proposal, as she and Darcy's late mother had already planned his marriage to her daughter Anne. Elizabeth refuses and asks the outraged Lady Catherine to leave. Darcy, heartened by his aunt's indignant relaying of Elizabeth's response, again proposes to her and is accepted.

Princess Mononoke

In Muromachi Japan, an Emishi village is attacked by a hideous demon. The last Emishi prince, Ashitaka, kills it before it reaches the village, but it manages to grasp his arm and curse him before its death. The curse grants him superhuman strength, but it also causes him pain and will eventually kill him. The villagers discover that the demon was a boar god, corrupted by an iron ball lodged in his body. The village's wise woman tells Ashitaka that he may find a cure in the western lands that the demon came from, and that he cannot return to his homeland.

Heading west, Ashitaka meets Jigo, an opportunistic monk who tells Ashitaka he may find help from the Great Forest Spirit, a deer-like animal god by day and a giant Night Walker by night. Nearby, men on a cliffside herd oxen to their home of Iron Town, led by Lady Eboshi, and repel an attack by a wolf pack led by the wolf goddess Moro, whom Eboshi wounds with a gun shot. Riding one of the wolves is San, a human girl. Down below, Ashitaka encounters San and the wolves, who rebuff his greeting. He then manages to rescue two of the men fallen from the cliff and transports them back through the forest, where he briefly glimpses the Great Forest Spirit.

Ashitaka and the survivors arrive at Iron Town, where he is greeted with fascination. Iron Town is a refuge for outcasts and lepers employed to process iron and create firearms, such as hand cannons and matchlock muskets. Ashitaka learns that the town was built by clearcutting forests to mine the iron, leading to conflicts with Asano, a local daimyō, and a giant boar god named Nago. Eboshi admits that she shot Nago, incidentally turning him into the demon that attacked Ashitaka's village. She also reveals that San, dubbed ''Princess Mononoke'', was raised by the wolves and hates humankind.

San infiltrates Iron Town to kill Eboshi. Ashitaka intervenes and quickly subdues Eboshi and San while they are locked in combat. Amidst the hysteria he is shot by a villager, but the curse gives him strength to carry San out of the village. San awakens and prepares to kill the weakened Ashitaka, but hesitates when he tells her that she is beautiful. She decides to trust him after the Forest Spirit heals his bullet wound that night. The next day, a boar clan led by the blind god Okkoto plans to attack Iron Town to save the forest. Eboshi sets out to kill the Forest Spirit with Jigo; Eboshi intends to give the god's head to the Emperor (who believes it will grant him immortality) in return for protection from Lord Asano, while Jigo desires the large reward being offered.

Ashitaka recovers and finds Iron Town besieged by Asano's samurai. The boar clan has also been annihilated in battle, and Okkoto is badly wounded. Jigo's men trick Okkoto into leading them to the Forest Spirit. San tries to stop Okkoto but is swept up as his pain corrupts him into a demon. As everyone clashes at the pool of the Forest Spirit, Ashitaka saves San while the Forest Spirit euthanizes Moro and Okkoto. As it begins to transform into the Night Walker Eboshi decapitates it. Jigo steals the head, while the Forest Spirit's body bleeds ooze that spreads over the land and kills anything it touches. The forest and kodama begin to die; Moro's head briefly comes alive and bites off Eboshi's right arm, but she survives. Enraged, San attempts to kill Eboshi again, but is stopped by Ashitaka, who consoles her and encourages her not to give up.

After Iron Town is evacuated, Ashitaka and San pursue Jigo and retrieve the head, returning it to the Forest Spirit. The Spirit dies but its form washes over the land, healing it and lifting Ashitaka's curses. Ashitaka stays to help rebuild Iron Town, but promises San he will visit her in the forest. Eboshi vows to build a better town. The forest begins to regrow as a single Kodama emerges from the brush.

Pale Fire

Shade's poem digressively describes many aspects of his life. Canto 1 includes his early encounters with death and glimpses of what he takes to be the supernatural. Canto 2 is about his family and the apparent suicide of his daughter, Hazel Shade. Canto 3 focuses on Shade's search for knowledge about an afterlife, culminating in a "faint hope" in higher powers "playing a game of worlds" as indicated by apparent coincidences. Canto 4 offers details on Shade's daily life and creative process, as well as thoughts on his poetry, which he finds to be a means of somehow understanding the universe.

In Kinbote's editorial contributions he tells three stories intermixed with each other. One is his own story, notably including what he thinks of as his friendship with Shade. After Shade was murdered, Kinbote acquired the manuscript, including some variants, and has taken it upon himself to oversee the poem's publication, telling readers that it lacks only line 1000. Kinbote's second story deals with King Charles II, "The Beloved", the deposed king of Zembla. King Charles escaped imprisonment by Soviet-backed revolutionaries, making use of a secret passage and brave adherents in disguise. Kinbote repeatedly claims that he inspired Shade to write the poem by recounting King Charles's escape to him and that possible allusions to the king, and to Zembla, appear in Shade's poem, especially in rejected drafts. However, no explicit reference to King Charles is to be found in the poem. Kinbote's third story is that of Gradus, an assassin dispatched by the new rulers of Zembla to kill the exiled King Charles. Gradus makes his way from Zembla through Europe and America to New Wye, suffering comic mishaps. In the last note, to the missing line 1000, Kinbote narrates how Gradus killed Shade by mistake.

Towards the end of the narrative, Kinbote all but states that he is in fact the exiled King Charles, living incognito; however, enough details throughout the story, as well as direct statements of ambiguous sincerity by Kinbote towards the novel's end, suggest that King Charles and Zembla are both fictitious. In the latter interpretation, Kinbote is delusional and has built an elaborate picture of Zembla complete with samples of a constructed language as a by-product of insanity; similarly, Gradus was simply an unhinged man trying to kill Shade, and his backstory as a revolutionary assassin is also made up.

In an interview, Nabokov later said that Kinbote killed himself after finishing the book. The critic Michael Wood has stated, "This is authorial trespassing, and we don't have to pay attention to it", but Brian Boyd has argued that internal evidence points to Kinbote's suicide. One of Kinbote's annotations to Shade's poem (corresponding to line 493) addresses the subject of suicide at some length.

Pacific Overtures

;Act I

Conceived as a Japanese playwright's version of an American musical about American influences on Japan, ''Pacific Overtures'' opens in July 1853. Since the foreigners were expelled from the island empire, explains the Reciter, elsewhere wars are fought and machines are rumbling, but in Nippon they plant rice, exchange bows and enjoy peace and serenity, and there has been nothing to threaten the changeless cycle of their days ("The Advantages of Floating in the Middle of the Sea"). But President Millard Fillmore, determined to open up trade with Japan, has sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry across the Pacific.

To the consternation of Lord Abe and the Shogun's other Councillors, the stirrings of trouble begin with the appearance of Manjiro, a fisherman who had been lost at sea and rescued by Americans. He has returned to Japan and now attempts to warn the authorities of the approaching warships, but is instead arrested for consorting with foreigners. A minor samurai, Kayama Yezaemon, is appointed Prefect of Police at Uraga to drive the Americans away - news which leaves his wife Tamate grief-stricken, since Kayama will certainly fail and both will then have to commit ''seppuku''. As he leaves, she expresses her feelings in dance as two Observers describe the scene and sing her thoughts and words ("There Is No Other Way"). As a Fisherman, a Thief, and other locals relate the sight of the "Four Black Dragons" roaring through the sea, an extravagant Oriental caricature of the USS Powhatan pulls into harbor. Kayama is sent to meet with the Americans but he is laughed at and rejected as not being important enough. He enlists the aid of Manjiro, the only man in Japan who has dealt with Americans, and disguised as a great lord Manjiro is able to get an answer from them: Commodore Perry must meet the Shogun within six days or else he will shell the city. Facing this ultimatum, the Shogun refuses to commit himself to an answer and takes to his bed. Exasperated by his indecision and procrastination, his Mother, with elaborate courtesy, poisons him. ("Chrysanthemum Tea").

Kayama devises a plan by which the Americans can be received without technically setting foot on Japanese soil, thanks to a covering of tatami mats and a raised Treaty House, for which he is made Governor of Uraga. He and Manjiro set off for Uraga, forging a bond of friendship through the exchange of "Poems". Kayama has saved Japan, but it is too late to save Tamate: when Kayama arrives at his home, he finds that she is dead, having committed ''seppuku'' after having received no news of Kayama for many days. Already events are moving beyond the control of the old order: the two men pass a Madam instructing her inexperienced Oiran girls in the art of seduction as they prepare for the arrival of the foreign devils ("Welcome to Kanagawa").

Commodore Perry and his men disembark and, on their "March to the Treaty House", demonstrate their goodwill by offering such gifts as two bags of Irish potatoes and a copy of Owen's "Geology of Minnesota". The negotiations themselves are observed through the memories of three who were there: a warrior hidden beneath the floor of the Treaty House who could hear the debates, a young boy who could see the action from his perch in the tree outside, and the boy as an old man recalling that without "Someone In a Tree", a silent watcher, history is incomplete. Initially, it seems as if Kayama has won; the Americans depart in peace. But the barbarian figure of Commodore Perry leaps out to perform a traditional Kabuki "Lion Dance", which ends as a strutting, triumphalist, all-American cakewalk.

;Act II

The child emperor (portrayed by a puppet manipulated by his advisors) reacts with pleasure to the departure of the Americans, promoting Lord Abe to Shogun, confirming Kayama as Governor of Uraga and raising Manjiro to the rank of Samurai. The crisis appears to have passed, but to the displeasure of Lord Abe the Americans return to request formal trading arrangements. To the tune of a Sousa march, an American ambassador bids "Please Hello" to Japan and is followed by a Gilbertian British ambassador, a clog-dancing Dutchman, a gloomy Russian and a dandified Frenchman all vying for access to Japan's markets. With the appearance of this new group of westerners, the faction of the Lords of the South grow restless. They send a politically charged gift to the Emperor, a storyteller who tells a vivid, allegorical tale of a brave young emperor who frees himself from his cowardly Shogun.

Fifteen years pass as Kayama and Manjiro dress themselves for tea. As Manjiro continues to dress in traditional robes for the tea ceremony, Kayama gradually adopts the manners, culture and dress of the newcomers, proudly displaying a new pocket watch, cutaway coat and "A Bowler Hat". Although Kayama, as stated in his reports to the Shogun, manages to reach an "understanding" with the Western merchants and diplomats, tensions abound between the Japanese and the "barbarians". Three British sailors on shore leave mistake the daughter of a samurai for a geisha ("Pretty Lady"). Though their approach is initially gentle, they grow more persistent to the point where they offer her money; the girl cries for help and her father kills one of the confused sailors. Kayama and Abe travel to the Emperor's court discussing the situation. While on the road, their party is attacked by cloaked assassins sent by the Lords of the South and Abe is assassinated. Kayama is horrified to discover that one of the assassins is his former friend, Manjiro; they fight and Kayama is killed.

In the ensuing turmoil, the puppet Emperor seizes real power and vows that Japan will modernize itself. As the country moves from one innovation to the "Next!", the Imperial robes are removed layer by layer to show the Reciter in modern dress. Contemporary Japan - the country of Toyota, Seiko, air and water pollution and market domination - assembles itself around him and its accomplishments are extolled. "Nippon. The Floating Kingdom. There was a time when foreigners were not welcome here. But that was long ago..." says the Reciter. "Welcome to Japan."

Preacher (comics)

''Preacher'' tells the story of Jesse Custer, a preacher in the small Texas town of Annville. Custer is accidentally possessed by the supernatural creature named Genesis, the infant of the unauthorized, unnatural coupling of an angel and a demon. The incident flattens Custer's church and kills his entire congregation.

Genesis has no sense of individual will, but since it is composed of both pure goodness and pure evil, its power might rival that of God Himself, making Jesse Custer, bonded to Genesis, potentially the most powerful being in the universe.

Driven by a strong sense of right and wrong, Custer journeys across the United States attempting to literally find God, who abandoned Heaven the moment Genesis was born. He also begins to discover the truth about his new powers. They allow him, when he wills it, to command the obedience of those who hear and comprehend his words. He is joined by his old girlfriend Tulip O'Hare, as well as a hard-drinking Irish vampire named Cassidy.

During the course of their journeys, the three encounter enemies and obstacles both sacred and profane, including The Saint of Killers, an invincible, quick-drawing, perfect-aiming, come-lately Angel of Death answering only to "He who sits on the throne"; a disfigured suicide attempt survivor turned rock-star named Arseface; a serial-killer called the 'Reaver-Cleaver'; The Grail, a secret organization controlling the governments of the world and protecting the bloodline of Jesus; Herr Starr, primary enforcer for The Grail, a megalomaniac with a penchant for prostitutes, who wishes to use Custer for his own ends; several fallen angels; and Jesse's own redneck family — particularly his nasty Cajun grandmother, her mighty bodyguard Jody, and the Zoophilic T.C.

Quake II

''Quake II'' takes place in a science fiction environment. In the single-player game, the player assumes the role of a Marine named Bitterman taking part in "Operation Alien Overlord", a desperate attempt to prevent an alien invasion of Earth by launching a pre-emptive attack against the home planet of the hostile Strogg civilization. Most of the other soldiers are captured or killed as soon as they approach the planned landing zone. Bitterman survives because another Marine's personal capsule collided with his upon launch, causing him to crash far short of the landing zone. Bitterman fights his way through the Strogg city, destroying strategic objectives along the way, and finally kills the Strogg leader, the Makron in his orbital asteroid base.

Quake (video game)

In the single-player game, the player takes the role of the unnamed protagonist, named Ranger in later games (voiced by Trent Reznor), sent into a portal in order to stop an enemy code-named "Quake". The government had been experimenting with teleportation technology and developed a working prototype called a "Slipgate"; the mysterious Quake compromised the Slipgate by connecting it with its own teleportation system, using it to send death squads to the "Human" dimension in order to test the martial capabilities of humanity.

The sole surviving protagonist in "Operation Counterstrike" is Ranger, who must advance, starting each of the four episodes from an overrun human military base, before fighting his way into other dimensions, reaching them via the Slipgate or their otherworld equivalent. After passing through the Slipgate, Ranger's main objective is to collect four magic runes from four dimensions of Quake; these are the key to stopping the enemy and ending the invasion of Earth.

The single-player campaign consists of 30 separate levels, or "maps", divided into four episodes (with a total of 26 regular maps and four secret ones), as well as a hub level to select a difficulty setting and episode, and the game's final boss level. Each episode represents individual dimensions that the player can access through magical portals (as opposed to the technological Slipgate) that are discovered over the course of the game. The various realms consist of a number of gothic, medieval, and lava-filled caves and dungeons, with a recurring theme of hellish and satanic imagery reminiscent of ''Doom'' (such as pentagrams and images of demons on the walls). The game's setting is inspired by dark fantasy influences, including H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Dimensional Shamblers appear as enemies, the "Spawn" enemies are called "Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua" in the manual, the boss of the first episode is named Chthon, and the main villain is named Shub-Niggurath (though actually resembling a Dark Young). Some levels have Lovecraftian names, such as the Vaults of Zin and The Nameless City. In addition, six levels exclusively designed for multiplayer deathmatch are included. Originally, the game was supposed to include more Lovecraftian bosses, but this concept was scrapped due to time constraints.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The film starts with the opening credits for the main cast ("Science Fiction, Double Feature"). Then, a criminologist narrates the tale of the newly engaged Brad Majors and Janet Weiss ("Dammit Janet"), who find themselves lost and with a flat tire on a cold and rainy late night in November 1974. Seeking a telephone, the couple walks to a nearby castle ("Over at the Frankenstein Place"); there, they discover an ongoing Annual Transylvanian Convention, where they meet the Igor-like Riff Raff, his French maid sister Magenta, and a groupie named Columbia ("Time Warp"). Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a cross-dressing, pansexual mad scientist, introduces himself to the couple ("Sweet Transvestite").

In his lab, Frank claims to have discovered the "secret to life itself" and brings to life his creation: a tall, muscular, handsome blond man named Rocky ("The Sword of Damocles"); Frank vows he can improve Rocky into an ideal man in a week ("I Can Make You a Man"). Delivery-boy Eddie (half of whose brain Frank had used in the creation of Rocky) breaks out of a deep freeze riding a motorcycle, interrupting Frank, and gets the Transylvanians dancing and singing ("Hot Patootie"). When Rocky starts dancing and enjoying the performance, a jealous Frank kills Eddie with a pickaxe. Frank justifies Eddie's murder as a "mercy killing" to Rocky and they depart to the bridal suite ("I Can Make You a Man - Reprise").

Brad and Janet are shown to separate bedrooms, where each is visited and seduced by Frank, who poses as Brad (when visiting Janet) and then as Janet (when visiting Brad). Although each of them is initially against having sexual relations with Frank, each quickly relents. Janet, upset and emotional after having lost her virginity to Frank, wanders off to find Brad, whom she sees smoking a cigarette in bed with Frank on a video monitor. She then discovers Rocky, cowering in his birth tank, hiding from Riff Raff and Magenta, who were tormenting him. While tending to his wounds, Janet, upset that Brad slept with Frank, decides to become intimate with Rocky as Magenta and Columbia watch from their bedroom monitor ("Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me").

After discovering that Rocky is missing, Frank returns to the lab with Brad and Riff Raff, where Frank learns that an intruder has entered the building: Dr. Everett Scott, Janet and Brad's former science teacher. Dr. Scott now investigates UFOs for the government, which alarms Frank. Dr. Scott explains that he is there in search of his nephew Eddie. Dr. Scott assures Frank that his presence at the castle at the same time as Brad is a coincidence unrelated to UFO work. Frank, Dr. Scott, Brad, and Riff Raff then discover Janet and Rocky together, angering Frank and Brad. At this point, Magenta sounds the gong to summon everyone to dinner.

Rocky and the guests share an uncomfortable dinner, which they soon realise has been prepared from Eddie's mutilated remains ("Eddie"). Janet runs screaming into Rocky's arms, provoking Frank to chase her through the halls ("Planet Schmanet Janet"). Janet, Brad, Dr. Scott, Rocky, and Columbia all meet in Frank's lab, where Frank captures them with the Medusa Transducer, transforming them into nude statues ("Planet Hot Dog"). After dressing them in cabaret costumes, Frank "unfreezes" them, and they perform a live cabaret floor show, complete with an RKO tower and a swimming pool, with Frank as the leader ("Rose Tint My World/Don't Dream It, Be It/Wild and Untamed Thing").

Riff Raff and Magenta, now with new space-cadet attire and hairdos, interrupt the performance. They inform Frank that he has failed their mission; Riff Raff declares himself commander and Frank attempts to explain himself believing he'll be taken as a prisoner ("I'm Going Home"), but Riff Raff kills both him and Columbia using a pitchfork-shaped raygun. An enraged Rocky gathers Frank's corpse in his arms, climbs to the top of the tower impervious to Riff Raff's raygun beams, and plunges to his death in the pool below. Riff Raff and Magenta state they will be returning to their home planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania, warning Brad, Janet and Dr. Scott to leave immediately before the castle lifts off into space. The injured survivors are then left crawling in the smog and dirt and the narrator concludes that the human race is equivalent to insects crawling on the planet's surface: "lost in time, and lost in space... and meaning".

Two songs play as the film ends with the final credits rolling ("Super Heroes"; "Science Fiction, Double Feature—Reprise").

Raging Bull

In 1964, an aging, overweight Italian American, Jake LaMotta, practices a comedy routine.

In 1941, LaMotta is in a major boxing match against Jimmy Reeves, where he suffered his first loss. Jake's brother, Joey LaMotta, discusses a potential shot for the middleweight title with one of his Mafia connections, Salvy Batts. Some time thereafter, Jake spots a fifteen-year-old girl named Vickie at an open-air swimming pool in his Bronx neighborhood. He eventually pursues a relationship with her, even though he is already married. In 1943, Jake defeats Sugar Ray Robinson, and has a rematch three weeks later. Despite the fact that Jake dominates Robinson during the bout, the judges surprisingly rule in favor of Robinson and Joey feels Robinson won only because he was enlisting into the Army the following week. By 1945, Jake marries Vickie.

Jake constantly worries about Vickie having feelings for other men, particularly when she makes an off-hand comment about Tony Janiro, Jake's opponent in his next fight. His jealousy is evident when he brutally defeats Janiro in front of the local Mob boss, Tommy Como, and Vickie. As Joey discusses the victory with journalists at the Copacabana, he is distracted by seeing Vickie approach a table with Salvy and his crew. Joey speaks with Vickie, who says she is giving up on his brother. Blaming Salvy, Joey viciously attacks him in a fight that spills outside of the club. Como later orders them to apologize, and has Joey tell Jake that if he wants a chance at the championship title, which Como controls, he will have to take a dive first. In a match against Billy Fox, after briefly pummeling his opponent, Jake does not even bother to put up a fight. He is suspended shortly thereafter from the board on suspicion of throwing the fight, though he realizes the error of his judgment when it is too late. He is eventually reinstated, and in 1949, wins the middleweight championship title against Marcel Cerdan.

A year later, Jake asks Joey if he fought with Salvy at the Copacabana because of Vickie. Jake then asks if Joey had an affair with her; Joey refuses to answer, insults Jake, and leaves. Jake directly asks Vickie about the affair, and when she hides from him in the bathroom, he breaks down the door, pushing her to sarcastically state that she had sex with the entire neighborhood (including his brother, Salvy, and Tommy Como) out of exhaustion, exclaiming "Is that what you want to hear?". Jake angrily walks to Joey's house, with Vickie following him, and assaults Joey in front of Joey's wife Lenora and their children before knocking Vickie unconscious. After defending his championship belt in a grueling fifteen-round bout against Laurent Dauthuille in 1950, he makes a call to his brother after the fight, but when Joey assumes Salvy is on the other end and starts insulting and cursing at him, Jake says nothing and hangs up. Estranged from Joey, Jake's career begins to decline slowly and he eventually loses his title to Sugar Ray Robinson in their final encounter in 1951.

By 1956, Jake and his family have moved to Miami. After he stays out all night at his new nightclub there, Vickie tells him she wants a divorce (which she has been planning since his retirement) as well as full custody of their kids. She also threatens to call the police if he comes anywhere near them. He is later arrested for introducing under-age girls to men in his club. He tries and fails to bribe his way out of his criminal case using the jewels from his championship belt instead of selling the belt itself. In 1957, he goes to jail, sorrowfully questioning his misfortune and crying in despair. Upon returning to New York City in 1958, he happens upon Joey, who forgives him but is elusive.

Again in 1964, Jake now recites the "I coulda been a contender" scene from the 1954 film ''On the Waterfront'', where Terry Malloy complains that his brother should have been there for him but is also keen enough to give himself some slack. After a stagehand informs him that the auditorium where he is about to perform is crowded, Jake starts to chant "I'm the boss" while shadowboxing.

Ringworld

On planet Earth in 2850 AD, Louis Gridley Wu is celebrating his 200th birthday. Despite his age, Louis is in perfect physical condition due to the longevity drug boosterspice. He meets Nessus, a Pierson's puppeteer, who offers him a mysterious job. Intrigued, Louis eventually accepts. Speaker-to-Animals (Speaker), who is a Kzin, and Teela Brown, a young human woman who becomes Louis's lover, also join the crew.

On the puppeteer home world, they are told that the expedition's goal is to investigate the Ringworld, a gigantic artificial ring, to see if it poses any threat. The Ringworld is about one million miles (1.6 million km) wide and approximately the diameter of Earth's orbit (which makes it about 584.3 million miles or 940.4 million km in circumference), encircling a sunlike star. It rotates to provide artificial gravity 99.2% as strong as Earth's from centrifugal force. The Ringworld has a habitable, flat inner surface (equivalent in area to approximately three million Earths), a breathable atmosphere and a temperature optimal for humans. Night is provided by an inner ring of shadow squares which are connected to each other by thin, ultra-strong wire. When the crew completes their mission, they will be given the starship in which they travelled to the puppeteer home world; it is orders of magnitude faster than any possessed by humans or Kzinti.

When they reach the vicinity of the Ringworld, they are unable to contact anyone, and their ship, the ''Lying Bastard'', is disabled by the Ringworld's automated meteoroid-defense system. The severely damaged vessel collides with a strand of shadow-square wire and crash-lands near a huge mountain, "Fist-of-God". As the fusion drive is destroyed, they are unable to launch back into space where they could use the undamaged faster-than-light hyperdrive to return home. They set out to find a way to get the ''Lying Bastard'' off the Ringworld.

Using their flycycles (similar to antigravity motorcycles), they try to reach the rim of the ring, where they hope to find some technology that will help them. It will take them months to cross the vast distance. When Teela develops "Plateau trance" (a kind of highway hypnosis), they are forced to land. On the ground, they encounter apparently primitive human natives who live in the crumbling ruins of a once-advanced city and think that the crew are the engineers who created the ring, and whom they revere as gods. The crew is attacked when they commit what the natives consider blasphemy (the misuse of certain technologies).

They continue their journey, during which Nessus reveals some Puppeteer secrets: they have conducted experiments on both humans (breeding for luck via Birthright Lotteries: all of Teela's ancestors for six generations were born from winning the lottery) and Kzinti (breeding for reduced aggression via the Man-Kzin wars, which the Kzinti always lost). Speaker's outrage forces Nessus to flee and follow them from a safe distance.

In a floating building over the ruins of a city, they find a map of the Ringworld and videos of its past civilization.

While flying through a giant storm caused by air escaping through a hole in the Ring floor due to a meteoroid impact, Teela becomes separated from the others. While Louis and Speaker search for her, their flycycles are caught by an automated police trap designed to catch traffic offenders. They are trapped in the basement of a floating police station. Nessus enters the station to try to help them.

In the station, they meet Halrloprillalar Hotrufan ("Prill"), a former crew member of a trading spaceship that collected plants and animals that couldn't adapt to the Ringworld. When her ship returned to the Ringworld the last time, they found that civilization had collapsed. The crew managed to enter the Ringworld, but some of them were killed and others suffered brain damage when the device that let them pass through the Ringworld floor failed. From her account, they learn that a mold was brought back from one of the original planets of the engineers by a spaceship like Prill's; it broke down the superconductors vital to the Ringworld civilization, dooming it.

Teela reaches the police station, accompanied by her new lover, a native "hero" called Seeker who helped her survive. Based on an insight gained from studying an ancient Ringworld map, Louis comes up with a plan to get home. Teela chooses to remain on the Ringworld with Seeker. Louis, formerly skeptical about breeding for luck, now wonders if the entire mission was caused by Teela's luck, to unite her with her true love and help her mature.

The party collects one end of the shadow-square wire that was snapped when the ship crashed. They travel back to their crashed ship in the floating police station, dragging the wire behind them. Louis threads it through the ship to tether it to the police station. He then takes the police station up to the summit of "Fist-of-God", the enormous mountain near their crash site. The mountain had not appeared on the Ringworld map, leading Louis to conclude that it is in fact the result of a meteoroid impact with the underside of the ring, which pushed the "mountain" up from the ring's floor and broke through. The top of the mountain, above the atmosphere, is therefore just a hole in the Ringworld floor. Louis drives the police station over the edge, dragging the ''Lying Bastard'' along with it. The Ringworld spins very quickly, so once the ship drops through the hole and clears the ring, they can use the ship's hyperdrive to get home. The book concludes with Louis and Speaker discussing returning to the Ringworld.

Ranma ½

On a training journey in the Bayankala Mountain Range in the Qinghai Province of China, Ranma Saotome and his father Genma fall into the cursed springs at . When someone falls into a cursed spring, they take the physical form of whatever drowned there hundreds or thousands of years ago whenever they come into contact with cold water. The curse will revert when exposed to hot water until their next cold water exposure. Genma fell into the spring of a drowned panda while Ranma fell into the spring of a drowned girl.

Soun Tendo is a fellow practitioner of or "Anything-Goes School" of martial arts and owner of a dojo. Genma and Soun agreed years ago that their children would marry and carry on the Tendo Dojo. Soun has three teenaged daughters: the polite and easygoing Kasumi, the greedy and indifferent Nabiki and the short-tempered, martial arts practicing Akane. Akane, who is Ranma's age, is appointed for bridal duty by her sisters with the reasoning that they are the older sisters and can dump the duty on her, and that they all dislike the arranged engagement and think Akane's dislike of men is the right way to express it to the fathers. At the appointed time they are surprised when a panda comes in and puts a girl in front of their father. The Tendo girls all laugh. It takes several more pages for the situation to be explained to Soun Tendo and his daughters. Both Ranma and Akane refuse the engagement initially, having not been consulted on the decision, but the fathers are insistent and they are generally treated as betrothed and end up helping or saving each other on some occasions. They are frequently found in each other's company and are constantly arguing in their trademark awkward love-hate manner that is a franchise focus.

Ranma goes to school with Akane at , where he meets his recurring opponent Tatewaki Kuno, the conceited kendo team captain who aggressively pursues Akane, but also falls in love with Ranma's female form without ever discovering his curse (despite most other characters eventually knowing it). Nerima serves as a backdrop for more martial arts mayhem with the introduction of Ranma's regular rivals, such as the eternally lost Ryoga Hibiki who traveled halfway across Japan getting from the front of his house to the back, where Ranma spent three days waiting for him. Ryoga, seeking revenge on Ranma, followed him to Jusenkyo where he ultimately fell into the Spring of the Drowned Piglet. Now when splashed with cold water he takes the form of a little black pig. Not knowing this, Akane takes the piglet as a pet and names it P-chan, but Ranma knows and hates him for keeping this secret and taking advantage of the situation. Another rival is the nearsighted Mousse, who also fell into a cursed spring and becomes a duck when he gets wet, and finally, there is Genma and Soun's impish grand master, Happosai, who spends his time stealing the underwear of schoolgirls.

Ranma's prospective paramours include the martial arts rhythmic gymnastics champion (and Tatewaki's sister) Kodachi Kuno, and his second fiancée and childhood friend Ukyo Kuonji the okonomiyaki vendor, along with the Chinese Amazon Shampoo, supported by her great-grandmother Cologne. As the series progresses, the school becomes more eccentric with the return of the demented, Hawaii-obsessed Principal Kuno and the placement of the power-leeching alternating child/adult Hinako Ninomiya as Ranma's English teacher. Ranma's indecision in choosing his true love causes chaos in his romantic and school life.

Rendezvous with Rama

After an asteroid falls in Northeast Italy on 11 September 2077, creating a major disaster, the government of Earth sets up the Spaceguard system as an early warning of arrivals from deep space.

The "Rama" of the title is an alien starship weighing at least ten trillion tons, initially mistaken for an asteroid categorised as "31/439". It is detected by astronomers in the year 2131 while it is still outside the orbit of Jupiter. Its speed (100,000 km/h – 62,150 m/h) and the angle of its trajectory clearly indicate it is not on a long orbit around the sun, but is an interstellar object. The astronomers' interest is further piqued when they realise the asteroid has an extremely rapid rotation period of four minutes and is exceptionally large. It is named Rama after the Hindu god, and an uncrewed space probe dubbed ''Sita'' is launched from the Mars moon Phobos to intercept and photograph it. The resulting images reveal that Rama is a perfect cylinder, in diameter and long, and almost completely featureless, making this humankind's first encounter with an alien spacecraft.

The solar survey vessel ''Endeavour'' is sent to study Rama, as it is the only ship close enough to do so in the brief period Rama will spend in the Solar System. ''Endeavour'' manages to rendezvous with Rama one month after it first comes to Earth's attention, when the alien ship is already inside Venus's orbit. The crew, led by Commander Bill Norton, enters Rama through a safety system consisting of triple airlocks, and explores the 16-km wide by 50-km long cylindrical world of its interior, but the nature and purpose of the starship and its creators remain enigmatic throughout the book. Rama's inner surfaces hold "cities" of geometric structures that resemble buildings and are separated by streets with shallow trenches. A band of water, dubbed the Cylindrical Sea, stretches around Rama's central circumference. Massive spires, which are theorised to be part of Rama's propulsion system, stand at its "southern" end. They also find that Rama's atmosphere is breathable.

One of the crew members, Jimmy Pak, who has experience with low gravity skybikes, rides a smuggled skybike along Rama's axis to the far end, otherwise inaccessible due to the cylindrical sea and the 500m high cliff on the opposite shore. Once at the massive metal cones on the southern end of Rama, Jimmy detects magnetic and electric fields coming from the cones, which increase, resulting in lightning. Due to his proximity to the spires, the concussion from a discharge damages his skybike causing him to crash on the isolated southern continent.

When Pak wakes up, he sees a crab-like creature picking up his skybike and chopping it into pieces. He cannot decide whether it is a robot or a biological alien, and keeps his distance while radioing for help. As Pak waits, Norton sends a rescue party across the cylindrical sea, using a small, improvised craft, constructed earlier for exploration of the sea's central island. The creature dumps the remains of the skybike into a pit, but ignores Pak himself, who explores the surrounding fields while waiting for the rescue party to arrive. Amongst the strange geometric structures, he sees an alien flower growing through a cracked tile in the otherwise sterile environment, and decides to take it as both a curiosity and for scientific research.

Pak jumps off the 500m cliff, his descent slowed by the low gravity and using his shirt as a drogue parachute, and is quickly rescued by the waiting boat. As they ride back, tidal waves form in the cylindrical sea, created by the movements of Rama itself as it makes course corrections. When the crew arrives at base, they see a variety of odd creatures inspecting their camp. When one is found damaged and apparently lifeless, the team's doctor/biologist Surgeon-Commander Laura Ernst inspects it, and discovers it to be a hybrid biological entity and robot—eventually termed a "biot". It, and by assumption the others, are powered by internal batteries (much like those of terrestrial electric eels) and possess some intelligence. They are believed to be the drones of Rama's still-absent builders.

The members of the Rama Committee and the United Planets, both based on the Moon, have been monitoring events inside Rama and giving feedback. The Hermian colonists have concluded that Rama is a potential threat and send a rocket-mounted nuclear bomb to destroy it should it prove to pose a threat. Lt. Boris Rodrigo takes advantage of the five minute transmission delay and uses a pair of wire cutters to defuse the bomb and its control.

As Rama approaches perihelion, and on their final expedition, the crew decide to visit the city closest to their point of entry, christened "London", and use a laser to cut open one of the "buildings" to see what it houses. They discover transparent pedestals containing holograms of various artefacts, which they theorise are used by the Ramans as templates for creating tools and other objects. One hologram appears to be a uniform with bandoliers, straps and pockets that suggests the size and shape of the Ramans. As the crew photographs some of the holograms, the biots begin returning to the cylindrical sea, where they are recycled by aquatic biots ('sharks') and the six striplights that illuminate Rama's interior start to dim, prompting the explorers to leave Rama and to re-board ''Endeavour''.

With ''Endeavour'' a safe distance away, Rama reaches perihelion and utilizes the Sun's gravitational field, and its mysterious "space drive", to perform a slingshot manoeuvre which flings it out of the Solar System and towards an unknown destination in the direction of the Large Magellanic Cloud.

### Ending

The book was meant to stand alone, although its final sentence suggests otherwise:

And on far-off Earth, Dr. Carlisle Perera had as yet told no one how he had wakened from a restless sleep with the message from his subconscious still echoing in his brain: ''The Ramans do everything in threes''.

Clarke denied that this sentence was a hint that the story might be continued. In his foreword to the book's sequel, he stated that it was just a good way to end the first book, and that he added it during a final revision.

Repo Man (film)

In the Mojave Desert, a policeman pulls over a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu driven by J. Frank Parnell. The policeman opens the trunk, sees a blinding flash of white light, and is instantly vaporized, leaving only his boots behind.

Otto Maddox, a young punk rocker in L.A., is fired from his job as a supermarket stock clerk. His girlfriend leaves him for his best friend. Depressed and broke, Otto is wandering the streets when Bud drives up and offers him $25 to drive a car out of the neighborhood, supposedly for his wife.

Otto follows Bud in the car to the Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation, where he learns the car he drove was being repossessed. He refuses to join Bud as a "repo man," and goes to his parents'. He learns that his burned-out ex-hippie parents have donated the money that they promised him as a reward for graduating from high school to a televangelist. He decides to take the repo job.

After repossessing a flashy red Cadillac, Otto sees Leila running down the street. He gives her a ride to her workplace, the United Fruitcake Outlet. On the way, she shows him pictures of aliens that she says are in the trunk of a Chevy Malibu. She says they are dangerous due to the radiation they emit. Meanwhile, Helping Hand is offered a $20,000 bounty notice for the Malibu. Most assume that the repossession is drug-related because the bounty is far above the actual value of the car.

Parnell arrives in L.A. driving the Malibu, but he is unable to meet his waiting UFO compatriots because of a team of government agents led by a woman with a metal hand. When Parnell pulls into a gas station, Helping Hand's competitors, the Rodriguez brothers, take the Malibu. They stop for sodas because the car's trunk is hot. While they are out of the car a trio of Otto's punk friends, who are on a crime spree, steal it.

After visiting a nightclub, Parnell appears and tricks the punks into opening the trunk, killing one of them and scaring the other two away. Later, he picks up Otto and drives aimlessly, before collapsing and dying from radiation. After surviving a convenience store shootout with the punks that leaves Bud wounded and punk Duke dead, Otto takes the Malibu back to Helping Hand and leaves it in the lot. The car is stolen again, and a chase ensues. By this time, the car is glowing bright green.

Eventually, the Malibu reappears at the Helping Hand lot with Bud behind the wheel, but he ends up being shot. The various groups trying to acquire the car soon show up; government agents, the UFO scientists, and the televangelist. Anyone who approaches it bursts into flames, even those in flame-retardant suits.

Only Miller, an eccentric mechanic at Helping Hand who had explained earlier to Otto that aliens exist and can travel through time in their spaceships, is able to enter the car. He slides behind the wheel and beckons Otto into the Malibu. After Otto settles into the passenger seat, it lifts straight up into the air and flies away, first through the city's skyline and later into space.

Rise of the Triad

A team of special operatives, known as the HUNT (High-risk United Nations Task-force) is sent to San Nicolas Island to investigate deadly cult activity taking place in an ancient monastery. Their boat, the only way back, is destroyed by patrols, and the team soon learns that the cult plans to systematically destroy nearby Los Angeles. The operatives, now unable to return whence they came, are then left to fight their way into the monastery on the island, and eventually put a stop to the cult's activities.

During its early stages of development, ''Rise of the Triad'' was initially meant to serve as the sequel to ''Wolfenstein 3D'', titled ''Wolfenstein 3D II: Rise of the Triad''. The presence of the Walther PP pistol, the MP 40 submachine gun, the Bazooka, and the outfits worn by the enemies allude to Nazi Germany and imply the original aforementioned intent for the development of ''ROTT''.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein

In 1943, assigned to the Office of Secret Actions (OSA) from the military, US Army Ranger William "B.J." Blazkowicz and British operative Agent One are sent into Egypt to investigate activity of the German SS Paranormal Division. The duo find themselves witness to the SS releasing an ancient curse around the dig site, resurrecting scores of zombies from their slumber. Pushing through the mummies and Nazis, B.J. and Agent One are led to an airfield and a location to follow. As they tail the SS, the two are shot down near Austria and captured by the Nazis. Agent One and Blazkowicz are imprisoned in Castle Wolfenstein, a remote, medieval castle that serves as a stronghold, prison, and research station. During their incarceration, Agent One is tortured for information and dies from electrocution. B.J., however, manages to escape Castle Wolfenstein's dungeon and fights his way out of the castle, using a cable car to leave the area and meet up with Kessler, a member of the German resistance in a nearby village.

Meanwhile, the SS Paranormal Division, under Oberführer Helga von Bülow, has long since moved from Egypt and has been excavating the catacombs and crypts of an ancient church within the village itself in search of the resting place of a "Dark Knight". The Division's sloppy precautions have led to the release of an ancient curse and the awakening of hordes of undead creatures, this time including Saxon knights. The majority of the SS finally realize the dangers and seal off the entrance into the catacombs, leaving many soldiers trapped inside. B.J. descends regardless and fights both Nazis and undead until he arrives at the ancient house of worship, the Defiled Church, where Nazi scientist Professor Zemph is conducting a 'life essence extraction' on the corpse of a Dark Knight, which, thanks to some Nazi technology, succeeds. Shortly before B.J.'s arrival, Zemph tries to talk the impatient Helga von Bulow out of retrieving an ancient Thulian artifact, the "Dagger of Warding" from a nearby altar in an isolated area of the church, but she shoots him and proceeds. This final blunder awakens another monster, Olaric, which kills and dismembers her. Blazkowicz, after a heated battle against spirits and demon attacks, defeats Olaric, and then is airlifted out with Zemph's notes and the dagger.

With the lead with Helga seeming to have come to a close, the OSA begins to shift its focus to one of Germany's leading scientific researchers and Head of the SS Special Projects Division, Oberführer Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse. Their investigation leads the OSA to realizing that Deathshead is preparing to launch an attack on London. He intends to use a V-2 rocket fitted with an experimental biological warhead, launching it from his base near Katamarunde in the Baltics. Due to the stealthy nature in which the OSA needs to act, Blazkowicz is parachuted some distance from the missile base and separated from his equipment. After collecting his gear, he smuggles himself into a supply truck bound for the base. Once inside, Blazkowicz destroys the V-2 on its launchpad and fights his way out of the facility towards an airbase filled with experimental jet aircraft. There, he commandeers a "Kobra" rocket-plane and flies to safety in Malta.

Eager to know more about Deathshead and his secret projects, the OSA sends Blazkowicz to the bombed-out city of Kugelstadt, where he is assisted by members of the German Kreisau Circle resistance group in breaking into a ruined factory and exfiltrating a defecting scientist. It is there he discovers the blueprints (and prototype) of the Reich's latest weapon, an electrically operated hand-held minigun dubbed the Venom Gun. Blazkowicz eventually breaks into Deathshead's underground research complex, the Secret Weapons Facility. There he encounters the horrific fruits of Deathshead's labors: creatures, malformed, and twisted through surgery and mechanical implants. The creatures escape from their containments and go on a rampage. Blazkowicz fights his way through the facility, only to see Deathshead escape the chaos by U-boat, and learns of his destination by interrogating a captured German officer.

Blazkowicz is then parachuted into Norway, close to Deathshead's mysterious "X-Labs." After breaking into the facility, which has been overrun by the twisted creatures he encountered in Kugelstadt (dubbed 'Lopers'), Blazkowicz retrieves Deathshead's journal, which links Deathshead's research to the rest of the SS Paranormal's occult activity. Finally catching up with Deathshead, Blazkowicz comes face to face with a completed and fully armored ''Übersoldat'', and kills the researchers who have developed it. After the ''Übersoldat'' is destroyed, Deathshead escapes in a Kobra rocket-plane and disappears for the rest of the game.

After studying the documents captured by Blazkowicz, the OSA has become aware of a scheme codenamed 'Operation: Resurrection', a plan to resurrect Heinrich I, a legendary and powerful Saxon warlock-king from 943 AD. Despite the skepticism of senior Allied commanders, the OSA parachutes Blazkowicz back near Castle Wolfenstein, at the Bramburg Dam, where he fights his way until he arrives at the village town of Paderborn. After assassinating all the senior officers of the SS Paranormal Division present there for the resurrection, Blazkowicz fights his way through Chateau Schufstaffel and into the grounds beyond. After fighting two more ''Übersoldaten'', Blazkowicz enters an excavation site near Castle Wolfenstein.

Inside the excavation site, Blazkowicz fights Nazi guards and prototype ''Übersoldaten'', and makes his way to a boarded-up entrance to Castle Wolfenstein's underground crypts. There, he finds that the ruined and decaying sections of the castle has become infested with undead creatures, which are attacking the castle's garrison. After fighting his way through the underworkings of the castle, Blazkowicz arrives too late at the site of a dark ceremony to prevent the resurrection of Heinrich I. At the ceremony, SS psychic and ''Oberführerin'' Marianna Blavatsky conjure up dark spirits, which transform three of Deathshead's ''Übersoldaten'' into Dark Knights, Heinrich's lieutenants. She ultimately raises Heinrich I, who turns her into his undead slave. Blazkowicz destroys the three Dark Knights, the undead Marianna Blavatsky, and eventually Heinrich I. In the distance, ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Himmler remarks how matters have been ruined as he leaves for Berlin to face an expectant Hitler.

Back in the OSA, Operation Resurrection is closed and Blazkowicz is off on some "R&R" — shooting Nazis.

Red Faction (video game)

''Red Faction'' takes place on Mars around the year 2075. Earth's minerals are being depleted and humans need more of them to survive. The vast Ultor Corporation runs the mining operation on Mars. The living conditions are deplorable, human rights for the miners are few, and a disease called "The Plague" is running rampant throughout the colony with no known antidote available—predominantly within the confines of the mine complex. Parker, a downtrodden miner, came to Mars to make a new start in his life—taken in by the promises and advantages Ultor has to offer in the mines of Mars. After a routine day in the mine with the typical aggression toward miners and cramped living conditions and poor nutrition, he witnesses the spark that starts a rebellion when a security guard abuses a miner at the end of his shift and heartlessly kills him. Parker takes up arms, with the help of Hendrix, a rebellious Ultor security technician who guides Parker through the complex. Hendrix tries to get Parker to join up with a group of miners who are about to steal a supply shuttle and escape the complex, but Parker arrives too late. The shuttle takes off, and is destroyed by missiles moments later.

Parker traverses through the Ultor complex, eliminating any resistance Ultor throws at him, and even (with the help of Orion, a high-ranking Red Faction member) kidnapping a high-ranking Ultor administrator, Gryphon, for Eos, leader of the Red Faction. Parker learns from Gryphon about Dr. Capek, who created "The Plague". Capek has been experimenting with nanotechnology, and the Plague is a side-effect of injections at the miners' annual medical checkup. Hendrix directs Parker to Capek's secret underground laboratory, where he and Eos meet up and take down Capek. As Capek dies, he tells Eos there is a cure for the Plague but refuses to tell her how to make it and bluntly states "Hope you all Die!" With Capek dead the lab's self-destruction sequence initiates, Eos stays behind to find the files on the cure while Parker continues to the Communications center. After sending a distress call to the Earth Defense Force, Parker destroys the missile defense system, so that he can stow away on a shuttle to an Ultor space station in Martian orbit to deactivate a laser defense system without getting shot down.

After destroying the space station, Parker lands back on Mars via an escape pod, Ultor brings out its reserve of mercenaries to help them in their fight against the miners. Hendrix tells Parker that the mercenaries have orders to destroy the mining complex, covering up any proof of Ultor's wrongdoing, Hendrix is killed soon after this by the mercenaries. After fighting his way through the mercenary base, Parker confronts Masako, the mercenary leader. After he kills Masako, Parker sees that Eos is tied up and sitting on the floor next to the bomb, which has been set to explode. After deactivating it, the Earth Defense Force arrives just in time to save Parker and Eos from a fighter aircraft. Eos tells Parker that an antidote for the Plague has been made and it is being given to any sick miners. She also tells him she is leaving Mars, and that Parker should enjoy his new status as a hero.

Star Trek Generations

In 2293, retired Starfleet officers James T. Kirk, Montgomery Scott, and Pavel Chekov attend the maiden voyage of the USS ''Enterprise''-B. During the shakedown cruise, the starship is pressed into a rescue-mission to save two El-Aurian refugee ships that have been snared by a massive energy ribbon. The ''Enterprise'' is able to save some of the refugees before their ships are destroyed, but becomes trapped by the ribbon, and Kirk goes to a control room to help the ship escape. While the ''Enterprise'' is freed, Kirk is presumed lost in space and dead after the trailing-end of the ribbon tears open the ship's hull.

In 2371, the crew of the USS ''Enterprise''-D is in a holodeck computer simulation, celebrating the promotion of shipmate Worf to lieutenant commander. Captain Jean-Luc Picard learns his brother and nephew have been killed in a fire, and is distraught that the Picard family line will end with him. The ''Enterprise'' receives a distress call from a stellar observatory, where an El-Aurian, Dr. Tolian Soran, launches a probe at the nearby star. The probe causes the star to implode, creating a shockwave that destroys its planetary system. Soran kidnaps ''Enterprise'' engineer Geordi La Forge and is transported off the station by a Klingon Bird of Prey belonging to the Duras sisters.

''Enterprise'' crewmember Guinan tells Picard that she and Soran were among the El-Aurians rescued in 2293. Soran is obsessed with reentering the energy ribbon to reach the "Nexus," an extra-dimensional realm that exists outside of normal space-time. Soran—who lost his family when their homeworld was destroyed—wants to escape death through the Nexus, which Guinan describes as "pure joy," and where time has no meaning. Picard and Data determine that Soran, unable to fly a ship directly into the ribbon, is altering its path by removing the gravitational effects of nearby stars. He plans to destroy another star to bring the ribbon to him on the planet Veridian III, consequently killing millions on a nearby inhabited planet.

Upon entering the Veridian-system, Picard offers himself to the Duras sisters in exchange for La Forge, but insists that he be transported to Soran directly. La Forge is returned to the ''Enterprise'', but unwittingly exposes the ship's defense details through the transmitter installed in his VISOR device. The Duras sisters attack, and the ''Enterprise'' sustains critical damage before destroying the Bird of Prey by rigging their cloaking device and firing photon torpedoes. When La Forge reports that the starship is about to suffer a warp-core breach as a result of the attack, Commander William Riker evacuates everyone to the forward saucer-section of the starship, which separates from the engineering section just before the breach occurs. The resulting shockwave sends the saucer-section crashing onto the surface of Veridian III, damaging it beyond repair.

Picard fails to stop Soran, as he succeeds in launching another probe into the Veridian system's star, resulting in a similar shockwave to the one that destroyed the observatory. The destruction of the Veridian star and the disappearance of its gravitational force alters the course of the ribbon, the shockwave causes the destruction of Veridian III, the ''Enterprise'', and its crew but not before Soran and Picard enter the Nexus, and Picard finds himself surrounded by an idealized family, but realizes it is an illusion. He is confronted by an "echo" of Guinan left behind in the Nexus. Guinan sends him to meet James T. Kirk, safe in the Nexus. Though Kirk is initially entranced by the opportunity to atone for past regrets, he realizes it lacks danger and excitement. Having learned that they can travel whenever and wherever desired through the Nexus, Picard convinces Kirk to return with him to Veridian III, shortly before Soran launches the probe.

Working together, Kirk and Picard distract Soran long enough for Picard to lock the probe in place; it explodes on the launchpad and kills Soran. Kirk is fatally injured in the effort and, after he dies, Picard buries him on the mountain with his "captain" badge. Three Federation starships arrive to retrieve the ''Enterprise''-survivors from Veridian III. Picard muses that given the ship's legacy, the ''Enterprise''-D will not be the last vessel to carry the name.

Star Trek: First Contact

In the 24th century, Captain Jean-Luc Picard awakens from a nightmare in which he relives his assimilation by the cybernetic Borg six years earlier. He is contacted by Admiral Hayes, who informs him of a new Borg threat against Earth. Picard's orders are for his ship, , to patrol the Neutral Zone in case of Romulan aggression; Starfleet is worried that Picard is too emotionally involved with the Borg to join the fight.

Learning the fleet is losing the battle, the ''Enterprise'' crew disobeys orders and heads for Earth, where a single Borg Cube ship holds its own against a group of Starfleet vessels. ''Enterprise'' arrives in time to assist the crew of and its commander, the Klingon Worf. Picard takes control of the fleet and directs the surviving ships to concentrate their firepower on a seemingly unimportant point on the Borg ship.Nemecek, 326. The Cube launches a smaller sphere ship towards Earth before being destroyed. ''Enterprise'' pursues the sphere into a temporal vortex. As the sphere disappears, ''Enterprise'' discovers Earth has been altered – it is now populated by Borg. Realizing the Borg have used time travel to change the past, ''Enterprise'' follows the sphere through the vortex.

''Enterprise'' arrives hundreds of years in its past on April 4, 2063, the day before Zefram Cochrane's historic warp drive flight that leads to humanity's first encounter with alien life. The crew realizes the Borg are trying to prevent first contact and assimilate humanity while the planet is reeling from a devastating global war. After destroying the Borg sphere, an away team transports down to Cochrane's ship, ''Phoenix'', in Bozeman, Montana. Picard has Cochrane's assistant Lily Sloane sent back to ''Enterprise'' for medical attention. The captain returns to the ship and leaves Commander William T. Riker on Earth to make sure ''Phoenix'' s flight proceeds as planned.Nemecek, 327. While in the future Cochrane is seen as a hero, the real man built the ''Phoenix'' for financial gain and is reluctant to be the historic figure the crew describes.

A group of Borg invade ''Enterprise'' s lower decks, assimilating crew and modifying the ship. Picard and a team attempt to reach engineering to disable the Borg with a corrosive gas, but are forced back; the android Data is captured in the melee. A frightened Lily corners Picard with a weapon, but he gains her trust. The two escape the Borg-infested area of the ship by creating a diversion in the holodeck. Picard, Worf, and the ship's navigator, Lieutenant Hawk, travel outside the ship in space suits to stop the Borg from calling reinforcements by using the navigational deflector, but Hawk is assimilated in the process. As the Borg continue to assimilate more decks, Worf suggests destroying the ship, but Picard angrily calls him a coward. Lily confronts the captain and makes him realize he is acting irrationally because of his own past with the Borg. Picard orders an activation of the ship's self-destruct, then orders the crew to head for the escape pods while he stays behind to rescue Data.Nemecek, 328.

As Cochrane, Riker, and engineer Geordi La Forge prepare to activate the warp drive on ''Phoenix'', Picard discovers that the Borg Queen has grafted human skin onto Data, giving him the sensation of touch he has long desired so that she can obtain the android's encryption codes to the ''Enterprise'' computer.

Although Picard offers himself to the Borg in exchange for Data's freedom and willingly become Locutus again, Data refuses to leave. He deactivates the self-destruct and fires torpedoes at ''Phoenix''. At the last moment the torpedoes miss, and the Queen realizes Data betrayed her. The android ruptures a coolant tank, and the corrosive vapor eats away the biological components of the Borg. With the Borg threat neutralized, Cochrane completes his warp flight. The next day the crew watches from a distance as an alien Vulcan ship, attracted by the ''Phoenix'' warp test, lands on Earth. Cochrane greets the aliens. Having ensured the correction of the timeline, Picard bids Lily farewell and the ''Enterprise'' crew slip away and return to the 24th century.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

In 2285, Admiral James T. Kirk oversees a simulator session of Captain Spock's trainees. In the simulation, Lieutenant Saavik commands the starship on a rescue mission to save the crew of the damaged ship ''Kobayashi Maru'', but is attacked by Klingon cruisers and critically damaged. The simulation is a no-win scenario designed to test the character of Starfleet officers. Later, Dr. McCoy visits Kirk on his birthday; seeing Kirk in low spirits due to his age, the doctor advises Kirk to get a new command instead of growing old behind a desk.

Meanwhile, the starship ''Reliant'' is on a mission to search for a lifeless planet to test the Genesis Device, a technology designed to reorganize dead matter into habitable worlds. ''Reliant'' officers Commander Pavel Chekov and Captain Clark Terrell beam down to evaluate a planet they believe to be Ceti Alpha VI; once there, they are captured by the genetically engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh explaining that they are on Ceti Alpha V. Fifteen years prior, Kirk exiled Khan and his fellow supermen to Ceti Alpha V after they attempted to take over his ship. The neighboring planet exploded, devastating the surface of Ceti Alpha V. Khan implants Chekov and Terrell with indigenous eel larvae (which killed several of his followers, including his wife) that render them susceptible to mind control, and uses them to capture ''Reliant''. Learning of the Genesis Device, Khan attacks space station ''Regula I'' where the device is being developed by Kirk's former lover, Dr. Carol Marcus, and their son, David.

Kirk assumes command of ''Enterprise'' after the ship, deployed on a training cruise, receives a distress call from ''Regula I''. En route, ''Enterprise'' is ambushed and crippled by ''Reliant''. Khan offers to spare Kirk's crew if they relinquish all material related to Genesis; Kirk instead stalls for time and remotely lowers ''Reliant'' s shields, enabling a counter-attack. Khan is forced to retreat and effect repairs, while ''Enterprise'' limps to ''Regula I''. Kirk, McCoy, and Saavik beam to the station and find Terrell and Chekov alive, along with the slaughtered members of Marcus's team. They soon find Carol and David hiding Genesis deep inside the nearby planetoid. Khan, having used Terrell and Chekov as spies, orders them to kill Kirk; Terrell resists the eel's influence and kills himself, while Chekov collapses as the eel leaves his body. Khan transports Genesis aboard the ''Reliant'', intending to maroon Kirk on the lifeless planetoid, but is tricked by Kirk and Spock's coded arrangements for a rendezvous. Kirk directs ''Enterprise'' into the nearby Mutara Nebula; conditions inside the nebula render shields useless and compromise targeting systems, making ''Enterprise'' and ''Reliant'' evenly matched. Spock notes that Khan's tactics indicate inexperience in three-dimensional combat, which Kirk exploits to disable ''Reliant''.

Mortally wounded, Khan activates Genesis, quoting Captain Ahab from the novel Moby Dick as he dies. Though Kirk's crew detects the activation and attempts to move out of range, they will not be able to escape the nebula in time without the ship's inoperable warp drive. Spock goes to restore warp power in the engine room, which is flooded with radiation. When McCoy tries to prevent Spock's entry, Spock incapacitates him with a Vulcan nerve pinch and performs a mind meld, telling him to "remember". Spock repairs the warp drive, and ''Enterprise'' jumps to warp, escaping the explosion, which forms a new planet. Before dying of radiation poisoning, Spock urges Kirk not to grieve, as his decision to sacrifice himself to save the ''Enterprise'' was a logical one. Kirk and the ships crew host a space burial for Spock, whose photon torpedo casket lands on the new Genesis planet.

Star Trek: Voyager

In the pilot episode, "Caretaker", departs the Deep Space Nine space station on a mission into the treacherous Badlands. They are searching for a missing ship piloted by a team of Maquis rebels, which ''Voyager'' s security officer, the Vulcan Lieutenant Tuvok, has secretly infiltrated. While in the Badlands, ''Voyager'' is enveloped by a powerful energy wave that kills several of its crew, damages the ship, and strands it in the galaxy's Delta Quadrant, more than 70,000 light-years from Earth. The wave was not a natural phenomenon. In fact, it was used by an alien entity known as the Caretaker to pull ''Voyager'' into the Delta Quadrant. The Caretaker is responsible for the continued care of the Ocampa, a race of aliens native to the Delta Quadrant, and has been abducting other species from around the galaxy in an effort to find a successor.

The Maquis ship was also pulled into the Delta Quadrant, and eventually the two crews reluctantly agree to join forces after the Caretaker space station is destroyed in a pitched space battle with another local alien species, the Kazon. Chakotay, leader of the Maquis group, becomes ''Voyager'' s first officer. B'Elanna Torres, a half-human/half-Klingon Maquis, becomes chief engineer. Tom Paris, whom Janeway released from a Federation prison to help find the Maquis ship, is made ''Voyager'' s helm officer. Due to the deaths of the ship's entire medical staff, the Doctor, an emergency medical hologram designed only for short-term use, is employed as the ship's full-time chief medical officer. Delta Quadrant natives Neelix, a Talaxian scavenger, and Kes, a young Ocampa, are welcomed aboard as the ship's chef/morale officer and the Doctor's medical assistant, respectively.

Due to its great distance from Federation space, the Delta Quadrant is unexplored by Starfleet, and ''Voyager'' is truly going where no human has gone before. As they set out on their projected 75-year journey home, the crew passes through regions belonging to various species: the barbaric and belligerent Kazon; the organ-harvesting, disease-ravaged Vidiians; the nomadic hunter race the Hirogen; the fearsome Species 8472 from fluidic space; and most notably the Borg, whose home is the Delta Quadrant, so that ''Voyager'' has to move through large areas of Borg-controlled space in later seasons. They also encounter perilous natural phenomena, a nebulous area called the Nekrit Expanse ("Fair Trade", third season), a large area of empty space called the Void ("Night", fifth season), wormholes, dangerous nebulae and other anomalies.

''Voyager'' is the third ''Star Trek'' series to feature Q, an omnipotent alien—and the second on a recurring basis, as Q made only one appearance on ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine''. Starfleet Command learns of ''Voyager'' s survival when the crew discovers an ancient interstellar communications network, claimed by the Hirogen, into which they can tap. This relay network is later disabled, but due to the efforts of Earth-based Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, Starfleet eventually establishes regular contact in the season-six episode "Pathfinder", using a communications array and micro-wormhole technology.

In the first two episodes of the show's fourth season, Kes leaves the ship in the wake of an extreme transformation of her mental abilities, while Seven of Nine (known colloquially as Seven), a Borg drone who was assimilated as a six-year-old human girl, is liberated from the collective and joins the ''Voyager'' crew. As the series progresses, Seven begins to regain her humanity with the ongoing help of Captain Janeway, who shows her that emotions, friendship, love, and caring are more important than the sterile "perfection" the Borg espouse. The Doctor also becomes more human-like, due in part to a mobile holo-emitter the crew obtains in the third season which allows the Doctor to leave the confines of sickbay. He discovers his love of music and art, which he demonstrates in the episode "Virtuoso". In the sixth season, the crew discovers a group of adolescent aliens assimilated by the Borg, but prematurely released from their maturation chambers due to a malfunction on their Borg cube. As he did with Seven of Nine, the Doctor rehumanizes the children; Azan, Rebi and Mezoti, three of them eventually find a new adoptive home while the fourth, Icheb, chooses to stay aboard ''Voyager.''

Life for the ''Voyager'' crew evolves during their long journey. Traitors Seska and Michael Jonas are uncovered in the early months ("State of Flux", "Investigations"); loyal crew members are lost late in the journey; and other wayward Starfleet officers are integrated into the crew. In the second season, the first child is born aboard the ship to Ensign Samantha Wildman; as she grows up, Naomi Wildman becomes great friends with her godfather, Neelix, and develops an unexpected and close relationship with Seven of Nine. Early in the seventh season, Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres marry after a long courtship, and Torres gives birth to their child, Miral Paris, in the series finale. Late in the seventh season, the crew finds a colony of Talaxians on a makeshift settlement in an asteroid field, and Neelix chooses to bid ''Voyager'' farewell and live once again among his people.

Over the course of the series, the ''Voyager'' crew finds various ways to reduce their 75-year journey by up to five decades (barring any other delays they may encounter): shortcuts, in the episodes "Year of Hell", "Night" and "Q2"; technology boosts in "The Voyager Conspiracy", "Dark Frontier", "Timeless" and "Hope and Fear"; a subspace corridor in "Dragon's Teeth"; and a mind-powered push from a powerful former shipmate in "The Gift". Several other trip-shortening attempts are unsuccessful, as seen in the episodes "Eye of the Needle", "Prime Factors", "Future's End", "Course: Oblivion", and "Inside Man". After traveling for seven years, a current (yet returning) shipmate helps instigate a series of complex efforts which shortens the remainder of the journey to a few minutes in the series finale, "Endgame".

Sense and Sensibility

Henry Dashwood, his second wife, and their three daughters live for many years with Henry's wealthy bachelor uncle at Norland Park, a large country estate in Sussex. That uncle decides, in late life, to will the use and income only of his property first to Henry, then to Henry's first son (by his first marriage) John Dashwood, so that the property should pass intact to John's four-year-old son Harry. The uncle dies, but Henry lives just a year after that and he is unable in such short time to save enough money for the future security of his wife Mrs Dashwood, and their daughters, Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret, who are left only a small income. On his deathbed, Mr Henry Dashwood extracts a promise from his son John to take care of his half-sisters. But before Henry is long in the grave, John's greedy wife, Fanny, persuades her husband to renege on the promise, appealing to his concerns about diminishing his own son Harry's inheritance, despite the fact that John is already independently wealthy thanks to both his inheritance from his mother and his wife's dowry. Henry Dashwood's love for his second family is also used by Fanny to arouse her husband's jealousy, and persuade him not to help his sisters financially.

John and Fanny immediately move in as the new owners of Norland, where the Dashwood women are treated as unwelcome guests by a spiteful Fanny. Mrs Dashwood seeks somewhere else to live. In the meantime, Fanny's brother, Edward Ferrars, visits Norland and is attracted to Elinor. Fanny disapproves of their budding romance, and offends Mrs Dashwood by implying that Elinor must be motivated by his expectations of coming into money.

Mrs Dashwood moves her family to Barton Cottage in Devonshire, near the home of her cousin, Sir John Middleton. Their new home is modest, but they are warmly received by Sir John and welcomed into local society, meeting his wife, Lady Middleton; his mother-in-law, the garrulous but well-meaning Mrs Jennings; and his friend, Colonel Brandon. Colonel Brandon is attracted to Marianne, and Mrs Jennings teases them about it. Marianne is not pleased, as she considers the thirty-five-year-old Colonel Brandon an old bachelor, incapable of falling in love or inspiring love in anyone.

While out for a walk, Marianne gets caught in the rain, slips, and sprains her ankle. The dashing John Willoughby sees the accident and assists her, picking her up and carrying her back to her home. After this, Marianne quickly comes to admire his good looks and his similar tastes in poetry, music, art, and love. His attentions, and Marianne's behaviour, lead Elinor and Mrs Dashwood to suspect that the couple are secretly engaged. Elinor cautions Marianne against her unguarded conduct, but Marianne refuses to check her emotions. Willoughby engages in several intimate activities with Marianne, including taking her to see the home he expects to inherit one day and obtaining a lock of her hair. When the announcement of an engagement seems imminent, Willoughby instead informs the Dashwoods that his aunt, upon whom he is financially dependent due to his debts, is sending him to London on business, indefinitely. Marianne is distraught and abandons herself to her sorrow.

Edward Ferrars pays a short visit to Barton Cottage, but seems unhappy. Elinor fears that he no longer has feelings for her, but she will not show her heartache. After Edward departs, sisters Anne and Lucy Steele, vulgar cousins of Mrs. Jennings, come to stay at Barton Park. Lucy informs Elinor in confidence of her secret four-year engagement to Edward Ferrars that started when he was studying with her uncle, and she displays proof of their intimacy. Elinor realises that Lucy's visit and revelations are the result of her jealousy and cunning calculation, and it helps Elinor to understand Edward's recent sadness and behaviour towards her. She acquits Edward of blame and pities him for being held to a loveless engagement to Lucy by his sense of honour.

Elinor and Marianne accompany Mrs Jennings to London. On arriving, Marianne rashly writes several personal letters to Willoughby, which go unanswered. When they meet by chance at a dance, Willoughby is with another woman. He greets Marianne reluctantly and coldly, to her extreme distress. She leaves the party completely distraught. Soon Marianne receives a curt letter enclosing their former correspondence and love tokens, including the lock of her hair. Willoughby is revealed to be engaged to a young lady, Miss Grey, who has a large fortune. Marianne is devastated. After Elinor reads the letter, Marianne admits to Elinor that she and Willoughby were never engaged. She behaved as if they were because she knew she loved him and thought that he loved her.

As Marianne grieves, Colonel Brandon visits and reveals to Elinor that Willoughby seduced, impregnated, then abandoned Brandon's young ward, Miss Eliza Williams. Willoughby's aunt subsequently disinherited him, and so, in great personal debt, he chose to marry Miss Grey for her money. Eliza is the illegitimate daughter of Brandon's first love, also called Eliza, a young woman who was his father's ward and an heiress. She was forced into an unhappy marriage to Brandon's elder brother, in order to shore up the family's finances, and that marriage ended in scandal and divorce while Brandon was abroad with the Army. After Colonel Brandon's father and brother died, he inherited the family estate and returned to find Eliza dying in a pauper's home, so Brandon took charge of raising her young daughter. Brandon tells Elinor that Marianne strongly reminds him of the elder Eliza for her sincerity and sweet impulsiveness. Brandon removed the younger Eliza to the country, and reveals to Elinor all of these details in the hope that Marianne could get some consolation in discovering Willoughby's true character.

Meanwhile, the Steele sisters have come to London. After a brief acquaintance, they are asked to stay at John and Fanny Dashwood's London house. Lucy sees the invitation as a personal compliment, rather than what it is: a slight to Elinor and Marianne who, being family, should have received such an invitation first. Too talkative, Anne Steele betrays to Fanny Lucy's secret engagement to Edward Ferrars. As a result, the sisters are turned out of the house, and Edward is ordered by his wealthy mother to break off the engagement on pain of disinheritance. Edward, still sensitive of the dishonour of a broken engagement and how it would reflect poorly on Lucy Steele, refuses to comply. He is immediately disinherited in favour of his brother, Robert, which gains Edward respect for his conduct and sympathy from Elinor and Marianne. Colonel Brandon shows his admiration by offering Edward the clerical living of the Delaford parsonage, so to enable him to marry Lucy after he is ordained.

Mrs Jennings takes Elinor and Marianne to the country to visit her second daughter, Mrs. Charlotte Palmer, at her husband's estate, Cleveland, on their way back to their home in Devonshire. Marianne, still in misery over Willoughby's marriage, goes walking in the rain and becomes dangerously ill. She is diagnosed with putrid fever, and it is believed that her life is in danger. Elinor writes to Mrs. Dashwood to explain the gravity of the situation, and Colonel Brandon volunteers to go and bring Marianne's mother to Cleveland to be with her. In the night, Willoughby arrives and reveals to Elinor that his love for Marianne was genuine and that losing her has made him miserable. He elicits Elinor's pity because his choice has made him unhappy, but she is disgusted by the callous way in which he talks of Miss Williams and his own wife. He also reveals that his aunt said she would have forgiven him if he married Miss Williams but that he had refused.

Marianne recovers from her illness, and Elinor tells her of Willoughby's visit. Marianne realizes she could never have been happy with Willoughby's immoral, erratic, and inconsiderate ways. She values Elinor's more moderated conduct with Edward and resolves to model herself after her courage and good sense. Edward later arrives and reveals that, after his disinheritance, Lucy jilted him in favour of his now wealthy younger brother, Robert. Elinor is overjoyed. Edward and Elinor marry, and later Marianne marries Colonel Brandon, having gradually come to love him. The two couples live as neighbours, with sisters and husbands in harmony with each other. Willoughby considers Marianne as his ideal but the narrator tells the reader not to suppose that he was never happy.

Sailor Moon

One day in Juban, Tokyo, a middle-school student named Usagi Tsukino befriends Luna, a talking black cat who gives her a magical brooch enabling her to transform into Sailor Moon: a soldier destined to save Earth from the forces of evil. Luna and Usagi assemble a team of fellow Sailor Guardians to find their princess and the Silver Crystal. They encounter the studious Ami Mizuno, who awakens as Sailor Mercury; Rei Hino, a local Shinto shrine maiden who awakens as Sailor Mars; Makoto Kino, a tall and strong transfer student who awakens as Sailor Jupiter; and Minako Aino, a young aspiring idol who had awakened as Sailor Venus a few months prior, accompanied by her talking feline companion Artemis. Additionally, they befriend Mamoru Chiba, a high school student who assists them on occasion as Tuxedo Mask.

In the first arc, the group battles the Dark Kingdom, whose members attempt to find the Silver Crystal and free an imprisoned, evil entity called Queen Metaria. Usagi and her team discover that in their previous lives they were members of the ancient Moon Kingdom in a period of time called the Silver Millennium. The Dark Kingdom waged war against them, resulting in the destruction of the Moon Kingdom. Its ruler Queen Serenity sent her daughter Princess Serenity, reincarnated as Usagi, along with her protectors the Sailor Guardians, their feline advisers Luna and Artemis, and the princess's true love Prince Endymion, who in turn was reborn as Mamoru.

At the beginning of the second arc, the Sailor Guardians meet Usagi and Mamoru's future daughter Chibiusa, who arrives from a 30th-century version of Tokyo known as "Crystal Tokyo", which is ruled by Neo Queen Serenity, Usagi of future and has been attacked by the group of villains known as the Black Moon Clan. During their journey, Sailor Moon and her friends meet Sailor Pluto, Guardian of the Time-Space Door. During the climactic battle of the arc, Chibiusa was once brainwashed by the enemy and turned into the Black Lady, but was eventually reformed and awakens as a Guardian herself—Sailor Chibi Moon.

The third arc introduces car-racer Haruka Tenoh and violinist Michiru Kaioh, who appear as Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, whose duty is to guard the Solar System from external threats. Physics student Setsuna Meioh, Sailor Pluto's reincarnation, joins Uranus and Neptune in their mission to kill a mysterious girl named Hotaru Tomoe, whom they identify as the Guardian of Destruction Sailor Saturn. However, when Saturn awakens she joins the final fight against the main antagonists of the arc, the Death Busters, sacrificing her life in the process. With her newly obtained powers as Super Sailor Moon, Usagi restores the Earth and Hotaru is reincarnated.

The fourth arc explores the Sailor Guardians' dreams and nightmares when the villainous group Dead Moon Circus exploits the Guardians' deepest fears, invades Elysion (which hosts the Earth's Golden Kingdom), and captures its High Priest Helios, who turned into a Pegasus and tried to ask Guardians for help. This storyline also addresses Mamoru's relevance as protector of the Earth and owner of the Golden Crystal, the sacred stone of the Golden Kingdom. Mamoru and all ten of the reunited Guardians combine their powers, enabling Usagi to transform into Eternal Sailor Moon and defeat Dead Moon's leader, Queen Nehelenia.

In the final arc the Sailor Starlights from the Kinmoku system, their ruler Princess Kakyuu, and the mysterious little girl Chibi-Chibi join Usagi in her fight against Shadow Galactica, a group of both corrupted and false Sailor Guardians and led by Sailor Galaxia, who have been rampaging across the galaxy and killing other Sailor Guardians to steal their Star Seeds, Sailor Crystals—the essence of their lives. After Mamoru and all of the main Solar System Guardians are killed by Shadow Galactica, Usagi travels to the Galaxy Cauldron, the birthplace of all Star Seeds of the Milky Way, in an attempt to revive her loved ones and to confront Chaos, the source of all strife in the galaxy.

Serial Experiments Lain

Lain Iwakura, a junior high school girl, lives in suburban Japan with her middle-class family, consisting of her inexpressive older sister Mika, her emotionally distant mother, and her computer-obsessed father; Lain herself is somewhat awkward, introverted, and socially isolated from most of her school peers. The status-quo of her life becomes upturned by a series of bizarre incidents that start to take place after she learns that girls from her school have received an e-mail from a dead student, Chisa Yomoda, and she pulls out her old computer in order to check for the same message. Lain finds Chisa telling her via email that she is not dead but has merely "abandoned her physical self" and is alive deep within the virtual realm of the Wired itself, where she claims she has found "God" there. From this point, Lain is caught up in a series of cryptic and surreal events that see her delving deeper into the mystery of the network in a narrative that explores themes of consciousness, perception, and the nature of reality.

"The Wired" is a virtual realm that contains and supports the very sum of ''all'' human communication and networks, created with the telegraph, televisions, and telephone services, and expanded with the Internet, cyberspace, and subsequent networks. The series assumes that the Wired could be linked to a system that enables unconscious communication between people and machines without physical interface. The storyline introduces such a system with the Schumann resonances, a property of the Earth's magnetic field that theoretically allows for unhindered long-distance communications. If such a link were created, the network would become equivalent to Reality as the general consensus of all perceptions and knowledge. The increasingly thin invisible line between what is real and what is virtual/digital begins to slowly shatter.

Masami Eiri is introduced as the project director on Protocol Seven (the next-generation Internet protocol in the series' time-frame) for major computer company Tachibana General Laboratories. He had secretly included code of his very own creation to give himself absolute control of the Wired through the wireless system described above. He then "uploaded" his own consciousness into the Wired and "died" a few days after, leaving only his physical self behind. These details are unveiled around the middle of the series, but this is the point where the story begins. Masami later explains that Lain is the artifact by which the wall between the virtual and material worlds is to fall, and that he needs her to go into the Wired and "abandon the flesh", as he did, to achieve his plan. The series sees him trying to convince her through interventions, using the promise of unconditional love, romantic seduction and charm, and even, when all else fails, threats and force.

In the meantime, the anime follows a complex game of hide-and-seek between the "Knights of the Eastern Calculus", hackers whom Masami claims are "believers that enable him to be a God in the Wired", and Tachibana General Laboratories, who try to regain control of Protocol Seven. In the end, the viewer sees Lain realizing, after much introspection, that she has absolute control over everyone's mind and over reality itself. Her dialogue with different versions of herself shows how she feels shunned from the material world, and how she is afraid to live in the Wired, where she has the possibilities and responsibilities of an almighty goddess. The last scenes feature her erasing everything connected to herself from everyone else's memories of her and everything else that has happened since the premiere. She is last seen, unchanged, encountering her oldest and closest friend Alice once again, who is now married. Lain promises herself that she and Alice will surely meet again anytime as Lain can literally go and be anywhere she desires between both worlds.

Saving Private Ryan

An elderly veteran visits the Normandy Cemetery with his family. At a specific grave, he is overcome with emotion and begins to recall his time as a soldier. On the morning of June 6, 1944, the U.S. Army lands at Omaha Beach as part of the Normandy invasion. Captain John H. Miller leads his command, Company C, 2nd Ranger Battalion in a breakout from the beach. The staff at the United States Department of War learns that James Francis Ryan of the 101st Airborne Division is missing and presumed to be the last survivor of four brothers who are all in the military. General George C. Marshall orders Ryan to be found and sent home so that his family will not lose all its sons.

Miller is ordered to lead a detachment in finding Ryan. As they arrive in the contested town of Neuville between German defenders and the 101st Airborne, Caparzo is killed by a German sniper. Miller and his men find a paratrooper named Ryan but he is not the one for whom they are searching, and they are directed to a rally point where James Francis Ryan's unit should be. Miller learns that Ryan is defending a key bridge in the town of Ramelle. ''En route'', Miller decides against the judgment of his soldiers to neutralize a German machine gun nest, which results in Wade's death. A surviving German soldier is spared by the intervention of Upham, the detachment's interpreter, who is unused to the horrors of combat. Miller blindfolds the soldier, who has been nicknamed "Steamboat Willie", and orders him to surrender to the next Allied patrol. When Reiben threatens to desert, Miller defuses the situation by calmly telling a story that reveals his civilian background as a teacher and baseball coach, which he has not previously spoken of, and which has been the subject of much speculation among his men.

Upon arriving in Ramelle, Miller's detachment makes contact with Ryan and informs him of his brothers' deaths. Though upset, Ryan refuses to abandon his post, which soon comes under siege by attacking Germans. Miller assumes command as the only officer present. He and his unit fight alongside the 101st, but the German armor advantage takes a toll on the Americans and Jackson and Horvath are killed. Steamboat Willie stabs Mellish to death as Upham fails to intervene, then wounds Miller as Miller attempts to destroy a bridge with pre-placed explosives. American P-51 Mustang fighter planes and Sherman tanks eventually overpower the Germans and end their advance. Upham confronts Steamboat Willie, who tries talking Upham into letting him go again; now aware of the difficult choices soldiers make during wartime, Upham kills him.

Miller tells Ryan to "earn this," referring to the sacrifices others have made so that Ryan can have a postwar life. Ryan is revealed to be the elderly veteran and the grave to be Miller's. Ryan expresses gratitude for the sacrifices made by Miller and his men, says he hopes he "earned it", and salutes the grave.

Stargate (film)

In 1928 in Giza, Egypt, Catherine Langford's father unearthed cover stones (also called casing stones) engraved with Egyptian hieroglyphs. In 1994, she invites Egyptologist and linguist Daniel Jackson, Ph.D. to translate the hieroglyphs. The stones are now part of a U.S. Air Force classified project overseen by Special Operations Colonel Jack O'Neil. Jackson determines that the hieroglyphs refer to a "stargate" which uses constellations as spatial coordinates. He is then shown the Stargate, which was also discovered by Langford's father, and they use his coordinates to align the Stargate's metal ring with markings along its outside. When all seven are locked in, a wormhole opens, connecting the Stargate with a distant planet. Jackson joins O'Neil and his team (Reilly, Porro, Freeman, Brown, Ferretti, and Kawalsky) as they pass through the wormhole.

They arrive in a pyramid on the arid desert planet of Abydos. Jackson locates the Stargate's controls, but does not find all of the symbols for the return coordinates. O'Neil orders Reilly, Porro, Freeman, and Ferretti to stay behind to guard the Stargate. Jackson sees a large animal with a harness, which drags him off when he approaches it to investigate. O'Neil's group follows and they discover a tribe of humans working to mine a strange mineral. Jackson realizes that they speak a variant of Ancient Egyptian and is able to communicate with them. He learns that the tribe sees him and his comrades as emissaries of their god Ra. The tribe's chieftain Kasuf presents Jackson with his daughter Sha'uri as a gift, and although Jackson initially refuses her, he later becomes romantically attached to her. O'Neil befriends Kasuf's teenaged son Skaara and his friends. Through hidden markings and discussions with the tribe, Jackson learns that Ra is an alien being who came to Earth during the Ancient Egyptian period to possess human bodies to extend his own life. Ra enslaved these humans and used the Stargate to bring some of them to Abydos to mine the mineral that is used in the alien technology. Humans on Earth revolted, overthrew Ra's overseers, and buried the Stargate to prevent its use. During this investigation, Jackson comes across a cartouche containing six of the seven symbols for the Stargate, but the seventh has been broken off.

That night, Ra's ship lands atop the pyramid structure, and his soldiers capture Ferretti and Freeman while killing Porro and Reilly. When Jackson, O'Neil, Brown, and Kawalsky return, there is a firefight against Ra's soldiers. Jackson and O'Neil are captured and brought before Ra and his guards, who are revealed to be humanoids when they retract their armored head-pieces. A firefight ensues, Jackson is killed, and the others are captured. Ra places Jackson's body in a sarcophagus-like device that regenerates him. Ra tells Jackson that he has found a nuclear bomb O'Neil secretly brought and has used his alien technology to increase its explosive power a hundred-fold, threatening to send it back through the Stargate to Earth. Ra orders the human tribe to watch as he prepares to force Jackson to execute the others to demonstrate his power, but Skaara and his friends create a diversion that allows Jackson, O'Neil, Kawalsky, and Ferretti to escape, while Freeman is killed. They flee to nearby caves to hide from Ra. Skaara and his friends celebrate, and Skaara draws a sign of victory on a wall, which Jackson recognizes as the final symbol.

O'Neil and his remaining men aid Skaara in overthrowing the remaining overseers and then launch an attack on Ra, who sends out fighter ships against the humans while he orders his ship to depart. The humans outside run out of ammunition and are forced to surrender to the fighter ships' pilots, but the rest of the tribe, seeing that their false gods are only humanoid, rebel against the pilots and overthrow them. Sha'uri is killed, but Jackson takes her body and sneaks aboard Ra's ship using a teleportation system, leaving O'Neil to fight Ra's guard captain, Anubis. Jackson places Sha'uri in the regeneration device, and she recovers, but Ra discovers them and attempts to kill Jackson. O'Neil activates the teleportation system, killing Anubis and allowing Jackson and Sha'uri to escape the ship. O'Neil and Jackson teleport the bomb to Ra's ship, destroying the ship and Ra. With the humans freed, the remaining team — O’Neil, Kawalsky, and Ferretti — return to Earth while Jackson chooses to stay behind with Sha'uri and the others.

Simon the Sorcerer

On his 12th birthday, a young boy named Simon is surprised when he receives a dog as a present from his parents, which he names Chippy. Unknown to Simon, his parents found the dog at their front door without warning, wrapped in paper, and possessing a book that nobody could read and which was eventually dumped in the loft. Sometime after his birthday, Simon hears Chippy playing around in the loft, to which he discovers it holding the book in its mouth. Reading it, he notes it is titled "Ye Olde Spellbooke", and unwittingly reads out a spell on one of the pages. A portal suddenly appears, which Chippy enters. Simon follows after him and winds up in another world, dressed in a wizard's robe. After Simon escapes a group of goblins with Chippy's help, he soon finds his way to a village with the dog's help, and brought to home of the wizard Calypso.

Inside the house, Simon finds a letter addressed to him from Calypso, who reveals he was responsible for bringing him into his world in hopes he could help defeat the evil sorcerer Sordid. Simon learns that Calypso has since been kidnapped and that he must rescue the wizard in order to be able to go home. Per Calypso's instructions, Simon meets with a group of wizards in the village pub and have them make him a wizard. Conducting a task set by them and paying them a small fee, Simon is made a wizard, and works to find the items needed to breach Sordid's mountain lair. After gaining entry to the tower with a potion that shrinks him, Simon overcomes further difficulties before returning to normal height to explore the tower. In Sordid's bedroom, he learns that the sorcerer created a wand that can turn people into stone, which can only be destroyed in the Fiery Pits of Rondor where Sordid had travelled to. Finding the wand in the tower, Simon uses a teleporter to reach Rondor, destroys the wand, and then defeats Sordid by pushing him into the fiery pits.

Sent back to his world, Simon awakens in his bedroom, assuming it was a dream. However, another portal opens in his room, whereupon a large gloved hand appears to take him back through.

Starship Troopers

The novel opens with Rico aboard the corvette transport ''Rodger Young'' (named after Medal of Honor recipient Rodger Wilton Young), serving with the platoon known as "Rasczak's Roughnecks". The platoon carries out a raid against a planetary colony held by Skinnies. The raid is relatively brief: the platoon lands on the planet, destroys its targets, and retreats, suffering two casualties in the process. One of them, Dizzy Flores, dies while returning to orbit. The narrative then flashes back to Rico's graduation from high school. Rico and his best friend Carl are considering joining the Federal Service after graduation; Rico is hesitant, partly due to his father's attitude towards the military. Rico makes his decision after discovering that his classmate Carmen Ibañez also intends to enlist.

Rico's choice is taken poorly by his parents, and he leaves with a sense of estrangement. He is assigned to the Mobile Infantry, and moves to Camp Arthur Currie (named for Arthur Currie who rose through the ranks to general in World War I) on the Canadian prairie for his training under Sergeant Charles Zim. The training is extremely demanding. Rico receives combat training of all types, including simulated fights in armored suits. A fellow recruit is court-martialed, flogged, and dismissed for striking a drill instructor who was also his company commander. Jean V. Dubois, who taught Rico's History and Moral Philosophy class in school, sends Rico a letter, revealing that he is a Mobile Infantry veteran himself. The letter helps Rico stay motivated enough not to resign. Rico himself is given five lashes for firing a rocket during a drill with armored suits and simulated nuclear weapons without ensuring that no friendlies were within the blast zone, which in combat would have resulted in the death of a fellow soldier. Another recruit, who murdered a baby girl after deserting the army, is hanged by his battalion after his arrest by civilian police. Eventually, after further training at another camp near Vancouver, Rico graduates with 187 others, of the 2,009 who had begun training in that regiment.

The "Bug War" has changed from minor incidents to a full-scale war during Rico's training. An Arachnid attack that annihilates the city of Buenos Aires alerts civilians to the situation; Rico's mother is killed in the attack. Rico participates in the Battle of Klendathu, an attack on the Arachnid's home world, which turns into a disastrous defeat for the Terran Federation. Rico's ship, the ''Valley Forge'', is destroyed, and his unit is decimated; he is reassigned to the Roughnecks on board the ''Rodger Young,'' led by Lieutenant Rasczak and Sergeant Jelal. The unit carries out several raids, and Rico is promoted to corporal by Jelal, after Rasczak dies in combat.

One of his comrades in the Roughnecks suggests that Rico go to officer training school and try to become an officer. Rico ends up going to see Jelal, and finds that Jelal already had the paperwork ready. Rico enters Officer Candidate School for a second course of training, including further courses in "History and Moral Philosophy". En route from the Roughnecks to the school, Rico encounters his father, who has also enlisted and is now a corporal, and the two reconcile. He is also visited in school by Carmen, now an ensign and ship's pilot officer in the Navy, and the two discuss their friend Carl, who had been killed earlier in the war.

Rico is commissioned a temporary third lieutenant for his final test: a posting to a combat unit. Under the tutelage of his company commander, Captain Blackstone, and with the aid of his platoon sergeant, his boot camp drill instructor Fleet Sergeant Zim, who was reassigned from Mobile Infantry boot camp, Rico commands a platoon during "Operation Royalty", a raid to capture members of the Arachnid brain caste and queens. Rico then returns to the officer school to graduate.

The novel ends with him holding the rank of Second Lieutenant, in command of his old platoon in the ''Rodger Young'', with his father as his platoon sergeant. The platoon has been renamed "Rico's Roughnecks", and is about to participate in an attack on Klendathu.

Seinfeld

Many ''Seinfeld'' episodes are based on the writers' real-life experiences, with the experiences reinterpreted for the characters' storylines. For example, George's storyline, "The Revenge", is based on Larry David's experience at ''Saturday Night Live''. "The Contest" is also based on David's experiences. "The Smelly Car" storyline is based on Peter Mehlman's lawyer friend, who could not get a bad smell out of his car. "The Strike" is based on Dan O'Keefe's dad, who made up his own holiday—Festivus. Other stories take a variety of turns. "The Chinese Restaurant" consists of George, Jerry and Elaine waiting for a table throughout the entire episode. "The Boyfriend", revolving around Keith Hernandez, extends through two episodes. "The Betrayal" is famous for using reverse chronology, and was inspired by a similar plot device in a Harold Pinter play, ''Betrayal''. Some stories were inspired by headlines and rumors, as explained in the DVD features "Notes About Nothing", "Inside Look", and "Audio Commentary". In "The Maestro", Kramer's lawsuit is roughly similar to the McDonald's coffee case. "The Outing" is based primarily on rumors that Larry Charles heard about Jerry Seinfeld's sexuality.

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

The film is separated into four segments with intertitles, inspired by Dante's ''Divine Comedy'':

### Anteinferno

In 1944, in the Republic of Salò, the Fascist-occupied portion of Italy, four wealthy men of power - the Duke, the Bishop, the Magistrate, and the President - agree to marry each other's daughters as the first step in a debauched ritual. They rule that when they get to the mansion their daughters must be completely naked at all times. They recruit four teenage boys to act as guards (dressed with uniforms of Decima Flottiglia MAS) and four young soldiers (called "studs", "cockmongers", or "fuckers"), who are chosen because of their large penises. The army and secret police is sent to round up many youths, of whom nine young men and nine young women are hand-picked and brought to a palace near Marzabotto. One of the boys tries to escape on the way, but is shot to death.

### Circle of Manias /

Accompanying the libertines at the palace are four middle-aged prostitutes, also collaborators, whose job it is to orchestrate debauched interludes for the men, who sadistically exploit their victims. During the many days at the palace, the four men devise increasingly abhorrent tortures and humiliations for their own pleasure. During breakfast, the daughters enter the dining hall naked to serve food. One of the studs trips and rapes a daughter in front of the crowd, who laugh at her cries of pain. Intrigued, the President moons several slaves before prompting the stud to perform anal sex on him and the Duke sings " ". Signora Vaccari uses a mannequin to demonstrate to the young men and women how to properly masturbate a penis and one of the girls tries to escape, only to have her throat cut. Signora Vaccari continues with her story. Two victims named Sergio and Renata, are forced to get married. The ceremony is interrupted when the Duke fondles several victims and sex workers. At the end, Sergio and Renata are forced to fondle each other and the men rape them to stop them from having sex with each other. During this, the Magistrate engages with the Duke in three-way intercourse.

On another day, the victims are forced to get naked and act like dogs. When one of the victims, Lamberto, refuses, the Magistrate whips him and tortures the President's daughter by tricking her into eating a slice of polenta containing nails.

### Circle of Shit /

Signora Maggi relates her troubled childhood and her coprophilia. As she tells her story, the President notices that one of the studs has an erection and fondles him; another stud uses a female victim's hand to masturbate himself. She also explains how she killed her mother over a dispute about her prostitution and Renata cries, remembering the murder of her own mother. The Duke, sexually excited at the sound of her cries, begins verbally abusing her. The Duke orders the guards and studs to undress her. During this, she begs God for death and the Duke punishes her by defecating on the floor and forcing her to eat his feces with a spoon. The President leaves to masturbate. Later, at a mock wedding reception for the Magistrate and Sergio, the victims are presented with a meal of human feces. During a search for the victim with the most beautiful buttocks, Franco is picked and promised death in the future.

### Circle of Blood /

Later, there is a Black Mass-like wedding between the studs and the men of power while the latter are dressed in drag. The men angrily order the children to laugh, but they are too grief-stricken to do so. The Pianist and Signora Vaccari tell dark jokes to make the victims laugh. The wedding ceremony ensues with each man of power exchanging rings with a stud. After the wedding, the Bishop consummates the marriage and receives intense anal sex from his stud. The Bishop then leaves to examine the captives in their rooms, where they start systematically betraying each other: Claudio reveals that Graziella is hiding a photograph, Graziella reveals that Eva and Antiniska are having a secret sexual affair. Victim Umberto is appointed to replace Ezio, who is shot to death for having sex with one of the staff.

Toward the end, the remaining victims are called out to determine which of them will be punished. Graziella is spared due to her betrayal of Eva, and Rino is spared due to his submissive relationship with the Duke. Those who are called are given a blue ribbon and sentenced to a painful death, while those who have not been called, as long as they kept collaborating with the libertines, can hope to return home. The victims huddle together and cry and pray in the bathroom. They are then taken outside and raped, tortured and murdered through methods such as branding, hanging, scalping, burning and having their tongues and eyes cut out, as each libertine takes his turn to watch as a voyeur. The soldiers shake hands and bid each other farewell. The Pianist, looking out an open window, suddenly realises with horror what atrocities are being committed and, climbing out, throws herself to her death.

Two young soldiers, who had witnessed and collaborated in all the atrocities, dance a simple waltz together; one asks the name of the other's girlfriend back at home.

Space Battleship Yamato

In the year 2199, an alien race known as Gamilas (Gamilons in the English ''Star Blazers'' dub) unleash radioactive meteorite bombs on Earth, rendering the planet's surface uninhabitable. Humanity has retreated into deep underground cities, but the radioactivity is slowly affecting them as well, with humanity's extinction estimated in one year. Earth has a space fleet, but they do not yet have interstellar capability, and they are hopelessly outclassed by Gamilas. All seems lost until a message capsule from a mysterious crashed spaceship is retrieved on Mars. The capsule yields blueprints for a faster-than-light engine and an offering of help from Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar in the Large Magellanic Cloud. She says that her planet has a device, the Cosmo-Cleaner D (Cosmo DNA), which can cleanse Earth of its radiation damage.

The inhabitants of Earth secretly build a massive spaceship inside the ruins of the gigantic ''Japanese battleship Yamato'' which lies exposed at the former bottom of the ocean location where she was sunk in World War II. This becomes the "Space Battleship Yamato" for which the story is titled. In the English ''Star Blazers'' dub, the ship is noted as being the historical ''Yamato'', but is then renamed the ''Argo'' (after the ship of Jason and the Argonauts).

Using Starsha's blueprints, they equip the new ship with a space warp drive, called the "wave motion engine", and in an apparently unexpected move, weaponize the technology to create a new, incredibly powerful weapon at the bow called the "Wave Motion Gun". The is capable of converting tachyon particles which travel faster than light and enables the ''Yamato'' to "ride" the wave of tachyons and travel faster than light. The , also called the Dimensional Wave Motion Explosive Compression Emitter, is the "trump card" of the Yamato that functions by connecting the Wave Motion Engine to the enormous firing gate at the ship's bow, enabling the tachyon energy power of the engine to be fired in a stream directly forwards. Enormously powerful, it can vaporize a fleet of enemy ships—or a small continent (as seen in the first season, fifth episode)—with one shot; however, it takes a brief but critical period to charge before firing.

A crew of 114 departs for Iscandar in the ''Yamato'' to retrieve the radiation-removing device and return to Earth within the one-year deadline. Along the way, they discover the motives of their blue-skinned adversaries: the planet Gamilas, sister planet to Iscandar, is dying; and its leader, Lord Dessler (Desslok in the ''Star Blazers'' dub), is trying to irradiate Earth enough for his people to move there, at the expense of the "barbarians" he considers humanity to be.

### Film edition

The series was condensed into a 130-minute-long movie by combining elements from a few key episodes of the first season. Additional animation was created for the movie (such as the scenes on Iscandar) or recycled from the series' test footage (such as the opening sequence). The movie, which was released in Japan on August 6, 1977, was edited down further and dubbed into English in 1978; entitled ''Space Cruiser Yamato'' or simply ''Space Cruiser'', it was only given a limited theatrical release in Europe and Latin America, where it was called '' '' (''Star Patrol'', in Brazilian Portuguese) or '' '' (''Starship Intrepid'', in Spanish), though it was later released on video in most countries.

Slayers

### Setting

In the ''Slayers'' universe, the ultimate being is the Lord of Nightmares, the creator of at least four parallel worlds. An artifact known as the Claire Bible contains information about the Lord of Nightmares' task to regain its "true form", which is only attainable by destroying these worlds and returning them to the chaos (sea of darkness) that it itself is. For unexplained reasons, though, the Lord of Nightmares has not acted upon this desire by itself so far. On each of these worlds are gods (''shinzoku'', lit. "godly race") and demons (''mazoku'', lit. "demon race"), fighting without end. Should the gods win the war in a world, that world will be at peace. Should the monsters win, the world will be destroyed and returned to the Sea of Chaos.

In the world where the ''Slayers'' takes place, Flare Dragon Ceifeed and the Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu are, respectively, the supreme god and demon. Long ago, their war ended more or less in a stalemate, when Ceifeed was able to split Shabranigdu's existence into seven pieces in order to prevent him from coming back to life, then seal them within human souls. As the souls are reincarnated, the individual fragments would wear down until Shabranigdu himself would be destroyed. However, Ceifeed was so exhausted by this that he himself sank into the Sea of Chaos, leaving behind four parts of himself in the world. A millennium before the events in ''Slayers'', one of Ruby-Eye's fragments (which was sealed in the body of Lei Magnus, a very powerful sorcerer) revived and began the against one of the parts of Ceifeed, the Water Dragon King, also known as Aqualord Ragradia. Ultimately, the piece of Shabranigdu won, but Aqualord, using the last remnants of her power, sealed him into a block of magical ice within the Kataart Mountains. Nevertheless, Shabranigdu's lieutenants remained at liberty, sealing a part of the world within a magical barrier, through which only demons could pass.

There are four types of magic within the ''Slayers'' universe: Black, White, Shamanistic, and Holy. Black magic spells, such as the famous Dragon Slave, call directly on the powers of the demons and are capable of causing enormous damage. White magic spells are of an obscure origin and are used for healing or protection. Shamanistic magic is focused on manipulation and alteration of the basic elements of the natural world (earth, wind, fire, water and spirit) and contains spells for both offense and convenience, such as Lei Wing, Fireball, or Elemekia Lance. Holy magic uses the power of the gods, but the aforementioned barrier made its usage impossible for anyone inside before the death of the demon Hellmaster Phibrizzo. As a rule, demons can only be harmed by astral shamanistic magic, holy magic, or black magic which draws power from another demon with greater might than the target.

Above all other magic, however, are the immensely destructive spells drawing power from the Lord of Nightmares. The two spells of this class are the Ragna Blade, capable of cutting through any obstacle or being, and the Giga Slave, which can kill any opponent, but which could also destroy the world itself if the spell is miscast. Some have claimed that these terrible spells, drawing their power directly from the Lord of Nightmares, constitute a fifth form of magic: Chaos magic.

### Story

The protagonist of ''Slayers'' is Lina Inverse, a teenage wandering genius sorceress with many nicknames and much infamy attached to her that she refuses to acknowledge. Lina narrates (within the novels) the history of her various adventures, ranging from whimsical and silly to dramatic to even outright world-threatening crises, in which she becomes involved along with her traveling companions everywhere she goes.

System Shock

Set in the year 2072, the protagonist—a nameless hacker—is caught while attempting to access files concerning Citadel Station, a space station owned by the TriOptimum Corporation. The hacker is taken to Citadel Station and brought before Edward Diego, a TriOptimum executive. Diego offers to drop all charges against the hacker in exchange for a confidential hacking of SHODAN, the artificial intelligence that controls the station. Diego secretly plans to steal an experimental mutagenic virus being tested on Citadel Station and to sell it on the black market as a biological weapon. To entice cooperation, Diego promises the hacker a valuable military-grade neural implant. After hacking SHODAN, removing the AI's ethical constraints, and handing control over to Diego, the protagonist undergoes surgery to implant the promised neural interface. Following the operation, the hacker is put into a six-month healing coma. The game begins as the protagonist awakens from his coma and finds that SHODAN has commandeered the station. All robots aboard have been reprogrammed for hostility, and the crew have been either mutated, transformed into cyborgs, or killed.

Rebecca Lansing, a TriOptimum counter-terrorism consultant, contacts the player and claims that Citadel Station's mining laser is being powered up to attack Earth. SHODAN's plan is to destroy all major cities on the planet, in a bid to establish itself as a god. Rebecca says that a certain crew member knows how to deactivate the laser, and promises to destroy the records of the hacker's incriminating exchange with Diego if the strike is stopped. With information gleaned from log discs, the hacker destroys the laser by firing it into Citadel Station's own shields. Foiled by the hacker's work, SHODAN prepares to seed Earth with the virus that Diego planned to steal—the same one responsible for turning the station's crew into mutants. The hacker, while attempting to jettison the chambers used to cultivate the virus, confronts and defeats Diego, who has been transformed into a powerful cyborg by SHODAN. Next, SHODAN begins an attempt to upload itself into Earth's computer networks. Following Rebecca's advice, the hacker prevents the download's completion by destroying the four antennas that SHODAN is using to send data.

Soon after, Rebecca contacts the hacker and says that she has convinced TriOptimum to authorize the station's destruction; she provides him with details on how to do this. After obtaining the necessary codes, the hacker initiates the station's self-destruct sequence and flees to the escape pod bay. There, the hacker defeats Diego a second time, then attempts to disembark. However, SHODAN prevents the pod from launching; it seeks to keep the player aboard the station, while the bridge—which contains SHODAN—is jettisoned to a safe distance. Rebecca tells the hacker that he can still escape if he reaches the bridge; SHODAN then intercepts and jams the transmission. After defeating Diego for the third time and killing him for good, the hacker makes it to the bridge as it is released from the main station, which soon detonates. He is then contacted by a technician who managed to circumvent SHODAN's jamming signal. The technician informs him that SHODAN can only be defeated in cyberspace, due to the powerful shields that protect its mainframe computers. Using a terminal near the mainframe, the hacker enters cyberspace and destroys SHODAN. After his rescue, the hacker is offered a job at TriOptimum, but he declines in favor of continuing his life as a hacker.

Sweeney Todd

For the original version of the tale, Todd is a barber who kills his victims by pulling a lever as they sit in his barber chair. His victims fall backward through a revolving trap door into the basement of his shop, generally causing them to break their necks or skulls. In case they are alive, Todd goes to the basement and "polishes them off" (slitting their throats with his straight razor). In some adaptations, the murdering process is reversed, with Todd slitting his customers' throats before dispatching them into the basement through the revolving trap door. After Todd has robbed his dead victims of their goods, Mrs. Lovett, his partner in crime (in some later versions, his friend and/or lover), assists him in disposing of the bodies by baking their flesh into meat pies and selling them to the unsuspecting customers of her pie shop. Todd's barber shop is situated at 186 Fleet Street, London, next to St. Dunstan's church, and is connected to Mrs. Lovett's pie shop in nearby Bell Yard by means of an underground passage. In most versions of the story, he and Mrs. Lovett hire an unwitting orphan boy, Tobias Ragg, to serve the pies to customers.

Strangers in Paradise

The story primarily concerns the difficult relationship between two women, Helen Francine Peters (referred to as Francine throughout the series) and Katina Marie ("Katchoo") Choovanski, and their friend David Qin. Francine considers Katchoo her best friend; Katchoo is in love with Francine. David is in love with Katchoo (a relationship which Katchoo herself is deeply conflicted over).

The love triangle (which later expands into a love rectangle with the introduction of Casey Bullock, who marries Francine's ex-boyfriend Freddie Femur and later divorces him, in order to pursue both David and Katchoo) alternates with the mystery and intrigue regarding Katchoo's past as an underage lesbian hooker and the Parker Crime Syndicate. Run by David's lesbian sister Darcy, the "Parker Girls" work for the shadowy 'Big Six' organization, an international crime syndicate with influence over the world of politics. "Parker Girls" are highly trained women used by organized crime to control, manipulate, spy upon, and ultimately kill men and women in positions of power and authority, for the Big Six.

Stuart Little

A boy named Stuart is born to an ordinary family in New York City. He is normal in every way except that he is only just over tall and looks exactly like a mouse. At first, the family is concerned with how Stuart will survive in a human-sized world, but by the age of seven, he speaks, thinks, and behaves on the level of a human of sixteen and shows surprising ingenuity in adapting, performing such helpful family tasks as fishing his mother's wedding ring from a sink drain. The family's cat, Snowbell, dislikes Stuart because while he feels a natural instinct to chase him, he is aware that Stuart is a human family member and is thus off-limits.

On a cold winter's day, the family discovers a songbird named Margalo half-frozen on their doorstep. Margalo is taken in and spends the winter in the family home, where she befriends Stuart; Stuart in turn protects her from Snowbell. The bird repays his kindness by saving Stuart when he is trapped in a garbage can and shipped out to sea for disposal. In the spring, when she is set free from the house, she continues to visit Stuart, infuriating Snowbell, who now finds himself with ''two'' small animals he is not allowed to eat.

Snowbell makes a deal with the Angora cat to eat Margalo to get rid of one of his temptations (reasoning that it's only wrong if ''he'' eats her). Margalo is warned and flees in the middle of the night. Stuart is heartbroken but becomes determined to find her. He first goes to the local dentist, Dr. Carey, who is a friend of Stuart’s. The dentist’s patient, Edward Clydesdale, suggests that Margalo may have flown to Connecticut, and Dr. Carey loans Stuart his motorized, gas-powered, toy car for the long journey.

Stuart travels from adventure to adventure and finds himself in the town of Ames Crossing, where he takes work as a substitute teacher. There he learns that living in Ames Crossing is a fifteen-year-old girl named Harriet Ames who is the same size as Stuart but looks like a human being. Stuart purchases a miniature souvenir canoe, prepping it to make it comfortable and waterproof, and invites Harriet out on a boating date. However, when the two arrive for the date, the canoe has been discovered and played with by local children, who have ruined it. Harriet tries to be polite but is put off by Stuart’s sulking over his broken boat. Stuart decides to leave Ames Crossing and continue on his quest to find Margalo. He sets off once more in his car, thinking that he will never see her again.

Scared to Death

The film opens with the disclosure by morgue examiners that a beautiful woman has literally died of fright. The plot reveals how she reached the fatal stage of terror.

The woman is married to the son of a doctor, the proprietor of a private sanatorium, where she is under unwilling treatment. Both the son and the doctor indicate they want the marriage dissolved. Arriving at the scene is a mysterious personage (Bela Lugosi) identified as the doctor's cousin who had been a stage magician in Europe. He is accompanied by a threatening dwarf (Angelo Rossitto).

After it is apparent that the wife is terrified of the foreigners, it is disclosed that she is the former wife and stage partner of a Paris magician known as René, who was believed to have been shot by the Nazis. Attempts to draw a confession that she had betrayed her magician husband and had collaborated with the Nazis led to the use of a device employing a death mask of the supposedly dead patriot, which literally frightens her to death.

Although the young newspaperman hero and his sweetheart guess the answer to the story, they allow the diagnosis "scared to death" to stand.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Sally Hardesty, her paraplegic brother Franklin, and their friends, Jerry, Kirk, and Pam visit the grave of the Hardestys' grandfather to investigate reports of vandalism and grave robbing. Afterwards, they decide to visit the old Hardesty family homestead. Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker, who talks about his family who worked at the old slaughterhouse. He borrows Franklin's pocket knife and cuts himself, then takes a single Polaroid picture of Franklin, for which he demands money. When they refuse to pay, he burns the photo, and slashes Franklin's left arm with a straight razor. The group forces him out of the van and drive on. They stop at a gas station to refill their vehicle, but the proprietor tells them that the pumps are empty.

They continue toward the homestead, intending to return to the gas station once it has received a fuel delivery. When they arrive, Franklin tells Kirk and Pam about a local swimming hole, and the couple go to find it. They stumble upon a nearby house, and Kirk calls out for gas, entering through the unlocked door, while Pam waits outside. Leatherface, a large mute man wearing a mask made from human skin, suddenly appears and kills Kirk with a hammer. Pam enters soon after and trips into a room filled with furniture made from human bones. She attempts to flee, but Leatherface catches her and impales her on a meathook, making her watch as he butchers Kirk with a chainsaw. Jerry heads out to look for Pam and Kirk at sunset. He sees the house and finds Pam, still alive, inside a freezer. Before he can react, Leatherface kills him.

With darkness falling, Sally and Franklin set out to find their friends. As they near the neighboring house and call out, Leatherface lunges from the darkness and kills Franklin with a chainsaw. Sally runs toward the house and finds the desiccated remains of an elderly couple upstairs. She escapes from Leatherface by jumping through a second-floor window, and she flees to the gas station. The proprietor calms her with offers of help, but then he ties her up, gags her, and forces her into his truck. He drives to the house, arriving at the same time as the hitchhiker, now revealed as Leatherface's brother. The hitchhiker recognizes Sally and taunts her.

The men torment the bound and gagged Sally while Leatherface, now dressed as a woman, serves dinner. Leatherface and the hitchhiker bring down one of the desiccated bodies from upstairs, that of their Grandpa. He is revealed to be alive when he sucks blood from a cut on Sally's finger. They decide that Grandpa, the best killer in the old slaughterhouse, should kill Sally. He tries to hit her with a hammer, but he is too weak. In the ensuing struggle, she breaks free, leaps through a window, and flees to the road. Leatherface and the hitchhiker give chase, but the latter is run over and killed by a passing truck. Leatherface attacks the truck with his chainsaw, and, when the driver stops to help, he knocks Leatherface down with a pipe wrench, causing the chainsaw to cut his leg. The driver flees, and Sally escapes in the back of a passing pickup truck as Leatherface maniacally flails his chainsaw in the air in anger and defeat.

The Big Lebowski

In early 1990s Los Angeles, lovable loser Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski is attacked in his home by two enforcers for porn kingpin Jackie Treehorn, who is owed money by the wife of a different Jeffrey Lebowski. One of the goons urinates on the Dude's favorite Persian rug before they realize they have the wrong man and leave.

Advised by his bowling partners, Vietnam veteran Walter Sobchak and unlucky fall guy Donny Kerabatsos, the Dude visits wealthy philanthropist Jeffrey ("Big") Lebowski, demanding compensation for the rug. Lebowski refuses, but the Dude tricks his assistant Brandt into letting him take a similar rug from the mansion. Outside he meets Bunny, Lebowski's trophy wife, and her German nihilist friend Uli. Soon after this, Bunny is apparently kidnapped and Lebowski hires The Dude to deliver the requested ransom money, one million dollars. That night, a different pair of thugs ambush the Dude, taking his replacement rug on behalf of Lebowski's daughter Maude, who has a sentimental attachment to it.

The kidnappers arrange to collect the ransom. Convinced that Bunny "kidnapped herself", Walter concocts a scheme to keep the ransom money by substituting it with a briefcase full of his dirty laundry. Although things do not go entirely according to Walter's plan, the kidnappers leave with Walter's laundry, and Walter and The Dude return to the bowling alley, leaving the ransom money in the trunk of his car. While the bowlers bowl, the car is stolen from the parking lot. Shortly afterward, the Dude is confronted by Lebowski, who hands him an envelope from the kidnappers containing a severed toe, implied to be from Bunny.

Revealing Bunny is one of Treehorn's actresses and lovers, Maude agrees that Bunny staged her own abduction and asks for the Dude's help to recover the money, which her father illegally withdrew from the family's foundation. Later, the Dude is separately confronted for his failure to deliver the ransom by both Lebowski and a trio of German nihilists who identify themselves as the kidnappers. Maude is able to confirm that the Germans are Bunny's friends.

The Dude's car, minus the briefcase, is recovered by police. Driving home after a meeting with Maude, the Dude finds homework stuffed down in the seat, signed "Larry Sellers". Walter and the Dude confront Larry at his father's home, questioning him about the missing briefcase. When he is unresponsive, Walter bashes a new sports car parked outside, thinking the teen had used the money to buy it. The car's actual owner, a neighbor, appears and retaliates by bashing the Dude's car, mistaking it for Walter's.

Later that night, the Dude is abducted by Jackie Treehorn's thugs, who take him to see the porn kingpin, who demands to know where Bunny is and what happened to his money. The Dude tells Treehorn that Bunny faked her kidnapping and that his money is with Larry Sellers. The Dude soon passes out after drinking a spiked White Russian given to him by Treehorn, and has an intense dream where he envisions an elaborate, Busby Berkeley-style musical sequence featuring himself and Maude. When he comes to, he is arrested and taken to a local police station, where the police chief threatens him and warns him to stay out of Malibu. On the ride home, the Dude is thrown out of his taxi cab after complaining about the driver's selection of The Eagles on the car radio. Soon after, Bunny can be seen driving by in her car, revealing that she was never kidnapped after all.

The Dude returns home, where he finds Maude, who has sex with him. Afterwards, she tells the Dude that she hopes to become pregnant, wanting a child but not with a father who she will have to interact with socially. Maude reveals that her father has no money of his own; his wealth came from her late mother. The Dude and Walter go to confront Lebowski and find that Bunny has returned, having simply gone out of town without telling anyone. The Dude explains that Bunny's nihilist friends had taken the opportunity to try and blackmail Lebowski, who, in turn, had taken the opportunity to embezzle money from the family charity, blaming its disappearance on the blackmailers. The briefcase given to the Dude never contained any money. An enraged Walter insists that Lebowski is faking his paralysis and lifts him out of his wheelchair, but discovers that Lebowski actually is paralyzed.

In a final confrontation outside of the bowling alley, the nihilists set the Dude's car on fire, and demand the ransom money. Walter valiantly fights them off, but during the altercation, Donny dies from a heart attack. Before scattering Donny's ashes from a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Walter delivers a eulogy that turns into a diatribe about the Vietnam War. He scatters the ashes, which an updraft blows back over himself and the Dude. The Dude chastises Walter for the eulogy and Walter apologizes; the two go bowling. Soon afterwards, the Dude encounters the Stranger, the film's narrator, who sums up everything that happened in the movie, and notes that while he "didn't like seeing Donny go", he remains optimistic and reveals that Maude is pregnant with a "little Lebowski on the way".

The Rock (film)

Disillusioned Brigadier General Francis Hummel and his second-in-command Major Tom Baxter lead a rogue group of U.S. Force Recon Marines against a heavily guarded naval weapons depot to steal a stockpile of 16 VX gas-loaded M55 rockets, ultimately losing one of their own men in the process. The next day, along with newly recruited Captains Frye and Darrow, Hummel and his men seize control of Alcatraz Island, taking 81 tourists hostage. Hummel threatens to launch the rockets against San Francisco unless the U.S. government pays him $100 million from a military slush fund, which he will distribute to his men and the families of Recon Marines who died on clandestine missions under his command, but whose deaths were not compensated.

The Department of Defense and FBI develop a plan to retake the island using a U.S. Navy SEAL team led by Commander Anderson, the FBI's top chemical weapons specialist, Dr. Stanley Goodspeed, and the only inmate to ever escape Alcatraz: John Mason. FBI Director James Womack bribes Mason with a pardon (which Womack subsequently destroys) and Mason is set up in a hotel. He escapes, resulting in a car chase with Goodspeed through the streets of San Francisco as Mason seeks out his estranged daughter, Jade. They meet but she accuses him of escaping again when Goodspeed arrives; he covers for Mason by telling Jade that Mason is aiding the FBI.

The team successfully infiltrates Alcatraz, but Hummel's men are alerted to their presence and ambush them in a shower room. Anderson and all of the SEALs are killed, leaving only Mason and Goodspeed alive. Goodspeed wants to finish the mission and attempts to strong-arm Mason into helping. Mason, seeing his chance to escape custody, disarms Goodspeed. Mason changes his mind about helping Goodspeed when the Marines, having found the weapons and radio missing from Anderson's second-in-command, start using bombs to ferret out the survivors.

Mason and Goodspeed eliminate several teams of Marines and disable twelve of the fifteen rockets by removing their guidance chips. Hummel threatens to execute a hostage if they do not surrender and return the chips; Mason destroys them before surrendering to Hummel to try reasoning with him and stall for time. Goodspeed disables another rocket but then gets captured. With the incursion team lost, the backup plan is initiated: an airstrike by F/A-18Cs with thermite plasma, which will neutralize the poison gas but also kill everyone on the island.

Mason and Goodspeed escape and Mason explains why he was held prisoner: as a former British SAS captain and MI6 operative, he was captured after stealing a microfilm containing details of the United States' most closely guarded secrets. Knowing he would be "suicided" if he returned it, he spent the last thirty years imprisoned without trial for refusing to hand it over.

When Hummel's deadline for the ransom passes, he is urged by his men to fire a rocket. Although he does, he redirects it to detonate at sea. Hummel, confronted by Darrow and Frye, explains the rocket threat was an elaborate bluff, as he had never intended to harm innocent civilians. He declares the mission over and orders them to exit Alcatraz with some hostages and the remaining rocket to cover their retreat while he assumes blame. Darrow and Frye, realizing they will not be paid their $1 million apiece, mutiny against him. They declare themselves mercenaries and a firefight ensues; Baxter is killed and Hummel is mortally wounded, but Hummel manages to tell Goodspeed where the last rocket is before dying.

Darrow and Frye proceed with the plan to fire on San Francisco. Goodspeed seeks out the rocket while Mason deals with the remaining Marines. As the jets approach, Goodspeed disables the rocket before killing both Darrow and Frye. Though he signals that the threat is over, one jet drops a bomb. No hostages are injured, but the blast throws Goodspeed into the bay and Mason rescues him.

Goodspeed reports a successful mission but lies that Mason died during the blast; he admits to Mason that Womack tore up the pardon and offers him a way off the island and cash in his hotel room. Mason reveals the location of the microfilm as he and Goodspeed part ways. Sometime later, Goodspeed and his newlywed wife Carla hastily drive away from a church in Kansas after having retrieved the microfilm, which features evidence of JFK's real assassin.

The Lord of the Rings

### ''The Fellowship of the Ring''

### ''The Two Towers''

### ''The Return of the King''

### Frame story

Tolkien presents ''The Lord of the Rings'' within a fictional frame story where he is not the original author, but merely the translator of part of an ancient document, the ''Red Book of Westmarch''. That book is modelled on the real ''Red Book of Hergest'', which similarly presents an older mythology. Various details of the frame story appear in the Prologue, its "Note on Shire Records", and in the Appendices, notably Appendix F. In this frame story, the ''Red Book'' is the purported source of Tolkien's other works relating to Middle-earth: ''The Hobbit'', ''The Silmarillion'', and ''The Adventures of Tom Bombadil''.

The Time Machine

The book's protagonist is a Victorian English scientist and gentleman inventor living in Richmond, Surrey, identified by a narrator simply as the ''Time Traveller''. Similarly, with but one exception (a man named Filby), none of the dinner guests present are ever identified by name, but rather by profession (for example, "the Psychologist") or physical description (for example, "the Very Young Man").

The narrator recounts the Traveller's lecture to his weekly dinner guests that time is simply a fourth dimension and demonstrates a tabletop model machine for travelling through the fourth dimension. He reveals that he has built a machine capable of carrying a person through time, and returns at dinner the following week to recount a remarkable tale, becoming the new narrator.

In the new narrative, the Time Traveller tests his device. At first he thinks nothing has happened but soon finds out he went five hours into the future. He continues forward and sees his house disappear and turn into a lush garden. The Time Traveller stops in A.D. 802,701, where he meets the Eloi, a society of small, elegant, childlike adults. They live in small communities within large and futuristic yet slowly deteriorating buildings, and adhere to a fruit-based diet. His efforts to communicate with them are hampered by their lack of curiosity or discipline. They appear happy and carefree but fear the dark, and particularly moonless nights. Observing them, he finds that they give no response to mysterious nocturnal disappearances, possibly because the thought of it alone frightens them into silence. After exploring the area around the Eloi's residences, the Time Traveller reaches the top of a hill overlooking London. He concludes that the entire planet has become a garden, with little trace of human society or engineering from the hundreds of thousands of years prior, and that communism has at last been achieved.

Returning to the site where he arrived, the Time Traveller is shocked to find his time machine missing and eventually concludes that it has been dragged by some unknown party into a nearby structure with heavy doors, locked from the inside, which resembles a Sphinx. Luckily, he had removed the machine's levers before leaving it (the time machine being unable to travel through time without them). Later in the dark, he is approached menacingly by the Morlocks, ape-like troglodytes who live in darkness underground and surface only at night. Exploring one of many "wells" that lead to the Morlocks' dwellings, he discovers the machinery and industry that makes the above-ground paradise of the Eloi possible. He alters his theory, speculating that the human race has evolved into two species: the favoured aristocracy has become the intellectually degraded Eloi, and their mechanical servants have become the brutal light-fearing Morlocks.

Deducing that the Morlocks have taken his time machine, he explores the Morlock tunnels, learning that due to a lack of any other means of sustenance, they feed on the Eloi. The Time Traveller theorizes that intelligence is the result of and response to danger; with no real challenges facing the Eloi, they have lost the spirit, intelligence, and physical fitness of humanity at its peak.

Meanwhile, he saves an Eloi named Weena from drowning as none of the other Eloi take any notice of her plight, and they develop an innocently affectionate relationship over the course of several days. He takes Weena with him on an expedition to a distant structure dubbed "The Palace of Green Porcelain", which turns out to be a derelict museum. Here, the Time Traveller finds a fresh supply of matches and fashions a crude weapon against Morlocks, whom he must fight to get his machine back. He plans to take Weena back to his own time. Because the long and tiring journey back to Weena's home is too much for them, they stop in the forest for the night. They are then overcome by Morlocks in the night, whereby Weena faints. The Traveller escapes when a small fire he had left behind them to distract the Morlocks turns into a forest fire; Weena and the pursuing Morlocks are lost in the fire and the Time Traveller is devastated over his loss.

The Morlocks open the Sphinx and use the time machine as bait to capture the Traveller, not understanding that he will use it to escape. He reattaches the levers before he travels further ahead to roughly 30 million years from his own time. There he sees some of the last living things on a dying Earth: Menacing reddish crab-like creatures slowly wandering the blood-red beaches chasing enormous butterflies, in a world covered in simple lichenous vegetation. He continues to make jumps forward through time, seeing Earth's rotation gradually cease and the sun grow larger, redder, and dimmer, and the world falling silent and freezing as the last degenerate living things die out.

Overwhelmed, he goes back to the machine and returns to his own time, arriving at the laboratory just three hours after he originally left. He arrives late to his own dinner party, whereupon, after eating, the Time Traveller relates his adventures to his disbelieving visitors, producing as evidence two strange white flowers Weena had put in his pocket.

The original narrator then takes over and relates that he returned to the Time Traveller's house the next day, finding him preparing for another journey and promising to return in a short time. However, the narrator reveals that he has waited three years before writing and stating the Time Traveller has not returned from his journey.

The Graduate

After earning his bachelor's degree from an East Coast college, Benjamin Braddock returns to his parents' Pasadena, California home. He cringes as his parents deliver accolades during his graduation party and retreats to his bedroom until Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father's law partner, insists that he drive her home. Once there, she tries to seduce him. He initially resists her advances, but after his parents continue to make him feel isolated and desperate for any kind of connection, he invites Mrs. Robinson to the Taft Hotel, where he registers under the pseudonym "Mr. Gladstone".

Benjamin spends the summer relaxing in his parents' pool by day and meeting Mrs. Robinson at the hotel by night. During one of their trysts, Mrs. Robinson reveals that her loveless marriage resulted when she accidentally became pregnant with her daughter, Elaine. When Benjamin jokingly suggests that he date Elaine, Mrs. Robinson angrily forbids it. However, Benjamin's parents, unaware of the affair, are eager for their son to date Elaine and relentlessly pester him to ask her out, as does Mr. Robinson. Benjamin gives in and reluctantly takes Elaine on a date.

When he sees how upset Mrs. Robinson is, Benjamin attempts to sabotage his date by ignoring Elaine, driving recklessly, and taking her to a strip club. She flees the club in tears, but Benjamin, feeling remorseful, runs out after her, apologizes, and kisses her. They eat at a drive-in restaurant, where they bond over their shared uncertainty about their future plans. After they visit the Taft Hotel for a late-night drink and the staff greet Benjamin as "Mr. Gladstone", Elaine deduces that Benjamin is having an affair with a married woman. Benjamin swears that the affair is over and makes plans for another date with Elaine for the following day.

To prevent Benjamin from dating Elaine, Mrs. Robinson threatens to tell Elaine about their affair. To thwart this, Benjamin reveals to Elaine that the married woman is her mother. Elaine is so upset that she refuses to see Benjamin again and returns to school at Berkeley.

Benjamin follows her to Berkeley hoping to regain her affections. Elaine is aghast because her mother told her that Benjamin raped her when she was drunk. After Benjamin explains what really happened and apologizes, Elaine forgives him and they rekindle their relationship. He asks her to marry him, but she is uncertain despite her feelings for him. Later, an angry Mr. Robinson arrives at Berkeley and confronts Benjamin in his boarding room, where he informs him that he and his wife will be divorcing soon, and threatens to have Benjamin jailed if he continues to see Elaine. He then forces Elaine to leave college to marry Carl Smith, a classmate whom she briefly dated.

Benjamin drives back to Pasadena and breaks into the Robinson home in search of Elaine. Instead, he finds Mrs. Robinson who calls the police and claims that her house is being burglarized. She then tells Benjamin that he cannot prevent Elaine's marriage to Carl. Before the police can arrest him, Benjamin flees the Robinson home and drives back to Berkeley. There, he visits Carl's fraternity and discovers from one of Carl's fraternity brothers that the wedding will take place in Santa Barbara that day. He rushes towards the area near the church, when his Alfa Romeo runs out of gas, causing him to jog towards the church and arrives just as the ceremony ends. Overlooking the sanctuary, he bangs on the glass separating him from the wedding and shouts Elaine's name. After surveying the angry faces of Carl and her parents, Elaine shouts "Ben!" and flees the sanctuary. Benjamin fights off Mr. Robinson and repels the wedding guests by swinging a large cross, which he uses to barricade the church doors, trapping them inside. Elaine and Benjamin escape aboard a bus and sit among startled passengers. As the bus drives on, their ecstatic smiles slowly fade away and they begin to look toward an uncertain future.

The Breakfast Club

On Saturday, March 24, 1984, five students at Shermer High School report at 7:00 a.m. for an all-day detention: nerdy Brian Johnson, varsity wrestler Andrew Clark, introverted outcast Allison Reynolds, popular snob Claire Standish, and rebellious delinquent John Bender. In voiceover, the five are described respectively as "a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal".

They gather in the school library, where Vice Principal Richard Vernon instructs them to not talk, move from their seats, or sleep until they are released at 4:00 p.m. He assigns them a thousand-word essay, in which each must describe "who you think you are." He leaves, returning only occasionally to check on and reprimand them.

John ignores the rules and spends most of his time bullying or harassing Claire, Brian, and Andrew. They all eventually feel sorry for him after seeing how he deals with abusive adults like Vernon, who gives John eight weekends' worth of additional detention. At one point, the five sneak out of the library to retrieve John's marijuana stash; John allows himself to be apprehended by Vernon in order to give the others time to return to the library undetected. Vernon locks John in a storage closet as punishment, but he escapes and returns to the library by crawling through the ceiling panels. The others help John hide and cover for him when Vernon comes to investigate the noise created by John's escape.

The students pass the time by talking, arguing, listening to music, and smoking marijuana. Gradually, they open up and reveal their secrets and their poor relationships with their parents. Claire's popularity subjects her to intense peer pressure, and her parents use her to get back at each other during arguments. She is in detention due to skipping school to go shopping.; John's father is physically and verbally abusive and Vernon states that John is in detention for pulling a false fire alarm; Allison is a compulsive liar with neglectful parents and dreams of running away from home. Andrew admits that his father emotionally abuses him to get him to succeed in wrestling, leaving Andrew feeling unable to think for himself; he was sent to detention for taping another student's buttocks together, hoping to win his father's approval. Brian is under such pressure from his parents to get good grades that he contemplated suicide after getting an F in shop class; he was sent to detention for bringing a flare gun to school for that purpose. Allison claims that she wasn't actually sent to detention, and merely showed up for lack of anything better to do. They all realize that, despite their differences, they face similar problems.

Meanwhile, Vernon complains to the janitor, Carl, that students today are less respectful than they were earlier in his teaching career. Carl tells Vernon that it is him that has changed, not the students.

Claire gives Allison a makeover, which sparks romantic interest from Andrew. Claire decides to break her "pristine" innocent appearance by kissing John. Although suspecting their new relationships will end when detention is over, they believe their mutual experiences will change the way they look at their peers.

As the detention nears its end, the group requests that Brian complete the assigned essay for everyone and John returns to the storage closet so Vernon thinks he never left. Brian leaves the essay in the library for Vernon to read after they leave. As the students part ways, Allison and Andrew kiss, as do Claire and John. Allison rips Andrew's state championship patch from his jacket to keep and Claire gives John one of her diamond earrings.

Vernon reads the essay, in which Brian states that Vernon has already judged who they are using stereotypes, but "each one of us is a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question?" He signs the essay with "Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club."

The Shockwave Rider

The novel is set in the weeks following Nick's recapture after several years on the run, alternating between moral arguments with his interrogator, who is trying to discover why the program's star pupil had absconded, and flashbacks of his career. The interrogator is Paul Freeman, a graduate of another secret installation known as Electric Skillet, which focuses on weapons and defence strategy.

Although he had initially felt at home at Tarnover, Nick eventually becomes aware of experiments in genetic engineering being performed there. These produce monstrous deformed children who are disposed of when they are no longer needed for study. At this point Nick becomes determined to escape. He studies data processing, steals a personal ID code intended for privileged individuals who wish to live their lives without surveillance, and goes on the run. He uses the stolen computer access code to cover his data trails and create new identities for himself, easily adopting entire new personas. One is the pastor of a popular church, another is a successful computer consultant.

In this last role, calling himself Sandy Locke, he becomes the lover of Ina Grierson, a top executive at Ground to Space Industries, a powerful "hypercorp" known to all as G2S. Intending to use the computer facilities at G2S to ensure that his stolen code is still valid, he signs on as a "systems rationalizer" with the company. This brings him into contact with Ina's daughter, Kate, who attracts him despite her plain appearance and simple lifestyle. At the age of 22, Nick's age when he left Tarnover, Kate is a perpetual student at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. She is perceptive enough to penetrate Nick's adopted persona, deeply disturbing him even though she fascinates him. He visits her at home, helping her to clean out some of her possessions, and meeting her tame cougar, Bagheera – the product of her late father's genetic research into intelligence. He died shortly after abandoning the research because the government was using it to produce animals for military uses.

The 21st-century lifestyle produces a symptom called "overload" in many people, and most, including Nick, take tranquilizers to some degree. However Nick collapses completely when told that a representative from Tarnover is coming to his promotional interview at G2S. He returns to Kate and confesses that he is not what he seems, asking for her help. She conducts him to one of the "paid avoidance areas" in California, where people are paid to do without the full panoply of modern technology, as an alternative to spending billions to rebuild infrastructure after the earthquake. After Nick risks exposure yet again in one of these places, they move to the least known one, a town called Precipice.

Precipice turns out to be a Utopian community of a few thousand people. The nearest comparison would be an agrarian, cottage industry community designed by William Morris. Precipice is also the home of Hearing Aid, an anonymous telephone confession service accessible to anyone in the country. Hearing Aid is also known as the "Ten Nines", after the phone number used to call it: 999-999-9999. People call the service, a human operator answers, and they simply talk while the operator listens. Some rant, others seek sympathy, still others commit suicide while on the phone. Hearing Aid's promise is that nobody else, not even the government, will hear the call. The only response Hearing Aid gives to a caller is "Only I heard that, I hope it helped."

Nick and Kate settle into the community. The inhabitants include intelligent dogs that escaped from the projects that Kate's father worked on. These act as companions, guards, nannies, and even lie detectors, using their sense of smell. Nick rewrites the "computer tapeworm" that prevents the calls to Hearing Aid being monitored. While at G2S he became aware of massive backups of data being performed, clearly in anticipation of a major network outage. The Hearing Aid worm is designed to scramble network traffic if attacked, but Nick realises that it could be destroyed if the authorities were prepared for the effects and ready to recover from them. His new worm, which he calls a "phage", cannot be removed without dismantling the entire network.

Possibly encouraged by the government, local gangs and tribes raid Precipice, burning down Nick and Kate's house before being overwhelmed by the dogs. Nick, suffering another overload, blames Kate for the incident, since she, following Hearing Aid policy, cut off a call from someone attempting to warn Precipice. He hits her, and then, filled with remorse, leaves the town. He finally reveals his location to the authorities when, encountering one of the "Roman circus" operations which broadcast live fights and other bloody exhibitions to the country, he responds to an "all comers" challenge by the father of the leader of one of the gangs, and cripples him in front of a nationwide audience.

At Tarnover, Paul Freeman takes charge of the interrogation. He was the representative whom Nick, as Sandy Locke, was supposed to meet at G2S. Freeman, a tall gaunt African-American, gradually comes to realise that he has more sympathy with Nick's views than his employer's, and eventually absconds himself, giving Nick computer access so that Nick can make his own escape. The precipitating event in this case is Kate's abduction by government agents, who bring her to Tarnover for further questioning and to threaten Nick.

With the code he gets from Freeman, he sets up an identity as an Army major, with Kate as his prisoner. Once clear of Tarnover, they disappear together. This time around, Nick has another plan, and rather than running and hiding, he and Kate spend a number of months travelling the country, aided by an "invisible college" of academics who are allies or former residents of Precipice. He creates a new "worm" which is designed to destroy all secrecy. (Brunner invented the term ''worm'' for this program, as a self-replicating program that propagates across a computer network – the word was later adopted by computer researchers as the name for this type of program.)

The worm is eventually activated, and the details of all the government's dark secrets (clandestine genetic experimentation that produces crippled children, bribes and kickbacks from corporations, concealed crimes of high public officials) now become accessible from anywhere on the network – in fact, those most affected by a particular crime of a government official are emailed the full details. In place of the old system, Nick has designed the worm to enforce a kind of utilitarian socialism, with people's worth being defined by their roles in society, not their connections in high places. In effect, the network becomes the entire government and financial system, policing income for illegal money, freezing the accounts of criminals, while making sure money (or credit) flows to places where people are in need. This will only happen fully if the results of a plebiscite, again conducted over the network, allow it.

In a final atavistic attempt at revenge, the government orders a nuclear strike by a single aircraft from a local Air Force base. Warned by Hearing Aid, Nick is able to penetrate the military computers and manufacture a counter-order to stop the plane just before it reaches the town. The book ends optimistically, with there being no more privileged hiding of information, no more secret conspiracies of the rich and powerful.

The Shining (novel)

''The Shining'' mainly takes place in the fictional Overlook Hotel, an isolated, haunted resort hotel located in the Colorado Rockies. The history of the hotel, which is described in backstory by several characters, includes the deaths of some of its guests and of former winter caretaker Delbert Grady, who “succumbed to cabin fever” and killed his family and himself.

Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy, and their five-year-old son Danny move into the hotel after Jack accepts the position as winter caretaker. Jack is an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic with anger issues which, prior to the story, had caused him to accidentally break Danny's arm and lose his position as a teacher after assaulting a student. Jack hopes that the hotel's seclusion will help him reconnect with his family and give him the motivation needed to work on a play. Danny, unknown to his parents, possesses psychic abilities referred to as "shining," which enable him to read minds and experience premonitions as well as clairvoyance. The Torrances arrive at the hotel on closing day and are given a tour by the manager. They meet Dick Hallorann, the chef, who possesses similar abilities to Danny's and helps to explain them to him, giving Hallorann and Danny a special connection. The remaining staff and guests depart the hotel, leaving the Torrances alone in the hotel for the winter.

As the Torrances settle in at the Overlook, Danny sees ghosts and frightening visions. Although Danny is close to his parents, he does not tell either of them about his visions because he senses that the care-taking job is important to his father and the family's future. Wendy considers leaving Jack at the Overlook to finish the job by himself; Danny refuses, thinking his father will be happier if they stayed. However, Danny soon realizes that his presence in the hotel makes the supernatural activity more powerful, turning echoes of past tragedies into dangerous threats. Apparitions take solid form and the garden's topiary animals come to life. The winter snowfall leaves the Torrances cut off from the outside world in the isolated hotel.

The Overlook has difficulty possessing Danny, so it begins to possess Jack by frustrating his need and desire to work and by enticing him with the storied history of the hotel through a scrapbook and records in the basement. Jack starts to develop cabin fever and becomes increasingly unstable, destroying a CB radio and sabotaging a snowcat, the only two links with the outside world the Torrances had. One day, after a fight with Wendy, Jack finds the hotel's bar fully stocked with liquor despite being previously empty, and witnesses a party at which he meets the ghost of a bartender named Lloyd. He also dances with a young woman ghost who tries to seduce Jack. As he gets drunk, the hotel uses the ghost of the former caretaker Grady to urge Jack to kill his wife and son. He initially resists, but the increasing influence of the hotel combined with Jack's own alcoholism and anger prove too great. He succumbs to his dark side and the control of the hotel. Wendy and Danny get the better of Jack after he attacks Wendy, locking him inside the walk-in pantry, but the ghost of Delbert Grady releases him after he makes Jack promise to bring him Danny and to kill Wendy. Jack attacks Wendy with one of the hotel's roque mallets, grievously injuring her, but she escapes to the caretaker's suite and locks herself in the bathroom. Jack attempts to break the door with the mallet, but Wendy slashes his hand with a razor blade to deter him.

Meanwhile, Hallorann has received a psychic distress call from Danny while working at a winter resort in Florida. Hallorann rushes back to the Overlook, only to be attacked by the topiary animals and severely injured by Jack. As Jack pursues Danny through the Overlook and corners him on the hotel's top floor, he briefly gains control of himself and implores Danny to run away after Danny stands his ground and denounces Jack as a mask and false face worn by the hotel. The hotel takes control of Jack again, making him violently batter his own face and skull into ruin with the mallet, destroying the last vestiges of Jack and leaving a being controlled by the hotel's own malevolent "manager" personality. Remembering that Jack has neglected to relieve the pressure on the hotel's unstable boiler, Danny informs the hotel that it is about to explode. As Danny, Wendy, and Hallorann flee, the hotel-creature rushes to the basement in an attempt to vent the pressure, but it is too late and the boiler explodes, killing Jack and destroying the Overlook. Fighting off a last attempt by the hotel to possess him, Hallorann guides Danny and Wendy to safety.

The book's epilogue is set during the next summer. Hallorann, who has taken a chef's job at a resort in Maine, comforts Danny over the loss of his father as Wendy recuperates from the injuries Jack inflicted on her.

Taxi Driver

Travis Bickle is a 26-year-old honorably discharged U.S. Marine and Vietnam War veteran suffering from PTSD and living alone in New York City. Travis takes a job as a night shift taxi driver to cope with his chronic insomnia and loneliness. He frequents the porn theaters on 42nd Street and keeps a diary in which he consciously attempts to include aphorisms, such as "you're only as healthy as you feel." He is disgusted with the crime and urban decay he witnesses, and dreams about ridding "the scum off the streets". Travis becomes infatuated with Betsy, a campaign volunteer for senator and presidential candidate Charles Palantine. Travis enters the campaign office where she works, and asks her out for coffee, to which she agrees. Betsy confesses that she feels a special connection to Travis, and agrees to go on another date with him. During their date Travis takes Betsy to a porn theater, which repulses her and causes her to leave. He attempts to reconcile with her, to no avail. Enraged, he storms into the campaign office where she works, and berates her before he is ordered to leave.

Experiencing an existential crisis and seeing various counts of prostitution throughout the city, Travis confides in fellow taxi driver nicknamed Wizard about his violent thoughts. However, Wizard dismisses them and assures him that he will be fine. In an attempt to find an outlet for his rage, Travis begins a program of intense physical training. A fellow taxi driver refers him to a black market gun dealer, "Easy" Andy, from whom Travis buys four handguns. At home, Travis practices drawing his weapons, and modifies one to allow him to hide and quickly deploy it from his sleeve. He also begins attending Palantine's rallies to scope out their security. One night, Travis shoots and kills a man attempting to rob a convenience store. On his trips around the city, Travis regularly encounters Iris, a child prostitute whom he fantasizes about saving. Travis solicits her and tries to persuade her to stop prostituting herself. Soon after, Travis cuts his hair into a mohawk and attends a public rally where he plans to assassinate Palantine. However, he is chased away by Secret Service agents who see him unzipping his jacket and putting his hand inside.

That evening, Travis drives to the House of assignation where Iris works, and shoots her pimp, Sport. He enters the building and engages in a shootout with Sport and one of Iris's clients, a mafioso. Travis is shot several times but manages to kill the two men. He then brawls with the bouncer, whom he manages to stab through the hand with his knife located in his shoe and finish him off with a gunshot to the head. Bloody and injured, Travis slumps on a couch next to a sobbing Iris. He attempts to commit suicide but is out of bullets. As police respond to the scene, a delirious Travis imitates shooting himself in the head using his finger. Travis goes into a coma due to his injuries. He is heralded by the press as a heroic vigilante and is not prosecuted for the murders, also receiving a letter from Iris's father, thanking him. After recovering, Travis returns to work, where he encounters Betsy as a fare; they interact cordially, with Betsy saying she followed his story in the newspapers. Travis drops her at home, and declines to take her money, driving off with a smile.

The Silence of the Lambs (film)

In 1990, Clarice Starling is pulled from her FBI training at the Quantico, Virginia FBI Academy by Jack Crawford of the Bureau's Behavioral Science Unit. He assigns her to interview Hannibal Lecter, a former psychiatrist and incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer. Crawford believes Lecter's insight could prove useful in the pursuit of a psychopath serial killer nicknamed "Buffalo Bill", who kills young women and removes their skin from their bodies.

At the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Dr. Frederick Chilton makes a crude pass at Starling before he escorts her to Lecter's cell. Although initially pleasant and courteous, Lecter grows impatient with Starling's interviewing and rebuffs her. As she is leaving, a prisoner named Miggs flicks semen at her. Lecter, who considers this an "unspeakably ugly" act, calls Starling back and tells her to seek out his old patient. This leads her to a storage facility, where she discovers a jar containing a man's severed head. She returns to Lecter, who says the man is linked to Buffalo Bill. He offers to profile Buffalo Bill on condition he be transferred away from Chilton, whom he detests. Another Buffalo Bill victim is found with a death's head moth lodged in her throat.

Buffalo Bill abducts Catherine Martin, the daughter of a United States senator. Crawford authorizes Starling to offer Lecter a fake deal, promising a prison transfer if he provides information that helps them capture Buffalo Bill and rescue Catherine. Instead, Lecter demands a ''quid pro quo'' from Starling, offering clues about Buffalo Bill in exchange for personal information. Starling tells Lecter about her father's murder when she was ten years old. Chilton secretly records the conversation and reveals Starling's deceit to Lecter before offering him a different deal. Lecter agrees and is flown to Memphis, where he meets and torments Senator Martin, then gives her false information on Buffalo Bill, including that his name is "Louis Friend".

Starling figures out that "Louis Friend" is an anagram of "iron sulfide"—fool's gold. She visits Lecter, who is now imprisoned in a cell in a Tennessee courthouse, and requests the truth. Lecter says all the information she needs is contained in the Buffalo Bill case file, then insists on continuing their ''quid pro quo''. She recounts a traumatic childhood incident of hearing spring lambs being slaughtered on a relative's Montana farm. Lecter speculates that Starling hopes that saving Catherine will end the recurring nightmares she has of lambs screaming. Lecter returns the Buffalo Bill case files to Starling as Chilton arrives and has the police escort her from the building. Later that evening, Lecter kills his guards (one of them is graphically disemboweled), escapes from his cell, and disappears.

Starling analyzes Lecter's file annotations and figures out that Buffalo Bill knew his first victim, Frederika Bimmel. Starling travels to her Ohio hometown and discovers that Bimmel and Buffalo Bill were tailors. At Frederika's home, she notices unfinished dresses and dress patterns identical to the patches of skin removed from the victims. She phones Crawford and says Buffalo Bill is making a "suit" with human skin. Crawford is already en route to make an arrest, having cross-referenced Lecter's notes with hospital archives and finding a man named Jame Gumb, who believes he is transsexual but was deemed too insane to apply for a sex-change operation. Starling continues interviewing Frederika's friends while Crawford and an FBI Hostage Rescue Team storm Gumb's address in Illinois, finding the house empty. Meanwhile, Starling goes to interview another person who knew Frederika. At the house, she meets "Jack Gordon", but realizes he is Gumb after spotting a death's head moth flying loose. She pursues him into a cavernous basement and finds Catherine trapped in a dry well. In a dark room, Gumb stalks Starling with night-vision goggles, but reveals himself by cocking his revolver. Starling reacts quickly and shoots Gumb dead.

At the FBI Academy graduation party, Starling receives a phone call from Lecter, who is at a Bimini airport. He assures her that he has no intention of pursuing her and requests that she return the favor, which she says she cannot. Lecter subsequently hangs up the phone because he is "having an old friend for dinner". He trails a newly-arrived Chilton into the crowd.

The Matrix

At an abandoned hotel, a police squad corners Trinity, who overpowers them with superhuman abilities. She flees, pursued by the police and a group of suited Agents capable of similar superhuman feats. She answers a ringing public telephone and vanishes.

Computer programmer Thomas Anderson, known by his hacking alias "Neo", is puzzled by repeated online encounters with the phrase "the Matrix". Trinity contacts him and tells him a man named Morpheus has the answers Neo seeks. A team of Agents and police, led by Agent Smith, arrives at Neo's workplace in search of him. Though Morpheus attempts to guide Neo to safety, he surrenders rather than risk a dangerous escape via a scaffold. The Agents attempt to bribe Neo into helping them locate Morpheus, who they claim is a terrorist (and the most dangerous man alive), by offering to erase his criminal record. When he refuses to cooperate, they fuse his mouth shut, pin him down, and implant a robotic "bug" in his stomach. Neo wakes up from what he believes to be a nightmare. Soon after, Neo is taken by Trinity to meet Morpheus, and she removes the bug from him, indicating that the "nightmare" he experienced was apparently real.

Morpheus offers Neo a choice between two pills: red to reveal the truth about the Matrix, and blue to forget everything and return to his former life. As Neo takes the red pill, his reality begins to distort, and he soon awakens in a liquid-filled pod among countless other pods, containing other humans. He is then brought aboard Morpheus's flying ship, the ''Nebuchadnezzar''.

As Neo recuperates from a lifetime of physical inactivity in the pod in the aftermath of being awakened, Morpheus explains the situation: In the early 21st century, a war broke out between humanity and intelligent machines. After humans blocked the machines' access to solar energy by deploying nuclear weapons, the machines responded by capturing humans and harvesting their bioelectric power, while keeping their minds pacified in the Matrix, a shared simulated reality modeled on the world as it was in 1999. The machines won the war, and the remaining free humans took refuge in the underground city of Zion. Morpheus and his crew are a group of rebels who hack into the Matrix to "unplug" enslaved humans and recruit them; their understanding of the Matrix's simulated nature allows them to bend its physical laws. Morpheus warns Neo that death within the Matrix kills the physical body, too, and explains that the Agents are sentient programs that eliminate threats to the system, while machines called Sentinels eliminate rebels in the real world. Neo's prowess during virtual training cements Morpheus's belief that Neo is "the One," a human prophesied to free humankind.

The group enters the Matrix to visit the Oracle, the prophet who predicted that the One would emerge. She implies to Neo that he is not the One and warns that he will have to choose between Morpheus's life and his own. Before they can leave the Matrix, Agents and police ambush the group, tipped off by Cypher, a disgruntled crew member who has betrayed Morpheus in exchange for a comfortable life in the Matrix. In an attempt to buy time for the others, Morpheus fights Smith and is captured. Cypher exits the Matrix and murders the other crew members as they lie unconscious. Before Cypher can kill Neo and Trinity, crew member Tank regains consciousness and kills him before pulling Neo and Trinity from the Matrix.

The Agents interrogate Morpheus to learn his access codes to the mainframe computer in Zion, which would allow them to destroy it. Neo resolves to return to the Matrix to rescue Morpheus, as the Oracle prophesied; Trinity insists she accompany him. While rescuing Morpheus, Neo gains confidence in his abilities, performing feats comparable to those of the Agents. After Morpheus and Trinity safely exit the Matrix, Smith ambushes and kills Neo. While a group of Sentinels attack the ''Nebuchadnezzar'', Trinity confesses her love for Neo and says the Oracle told her she would fall in love with the One. Neo is revived, with newfound abilities to perceive and control the Matrix; he easily defeats Smith, prompting the other Agents to flee, and he leaves the Matrix just as the ship's electromagnetic pulse disables the Sentinels.

Back in the Matrix, Neo makes a telephone call, promising the machines that he will show their prisoners "a world where anything is possible." He hangs up and flies away.

The A-Team

''The A-Team'' is an episodic show, with few overarching stories, except the characters' continuing motivation to clear their names, with few references to events in past episodes and a recognizable and steady episode structure. In describing the ratings drop that occurred during the show's fourth season, reviewer Gold Burt points to this structure as being a leading cause for the decreased popularity "because the same basic plot had been used over and over again for the past four seasons with the same predictable outcome". Similarly, reporter Adrian Lee called the plots "stunningly simple" in a 2006 article for ''The Express'' (UK newspaper), citing such recurring elements "as BA's fear of flying, and outlandish finales when the team fashioned weapons from household items". The show became emblematic of this kind of "fit-for-TV warfare" due to its depiction of high-octane combat scenes, with lethal weapons, wherein the participants (with the notable exception of General Fulbright) are never killed and rarely seriously injured (''see also'' On-screen violence section).

As the television ratings of ''The A-Team'' fell dramatically during the fourth season, the format was changed for the show's final season in 1986–87 in a bid to win back viewers. After years on the run from the authorities, the A-Team is finally apprehended by the military. General Hunt Stockwell (Robert Vaughn), a mysterious CIA operative, propositions them to work for him. In exchange, he will arrange for their pardons upon successful completion of several suicide missions. To do so, the A-Team must first escape from their captivity. With the help of a new character named Frankie "Dishpan Man" Santana who helped the group in Vietnam and who, like Murdock, was not arrested, Stockwell fakes their deaths before a military firing squad. The new status of the A-Team, no longer working for themselves, remained for the duration of the fifth season while Eddie Velez and Robert Vaughn received star billing along with the principal cast. The missions that the team had to perform in season five were somewhat reminiscent of ''Mission: Impossible'', and based more around political espionage than beating local thugs, also usually taking place in foreign countries, including successfully overthrowing an island dictator, the rescue of a scientist from East Germany, and recovering top secret Star Wars defense information from Soviet hands. These changes proved unsuccessful with viewers, however, and ratings continued to decline. Only 13 episodes aired in the fifth season. In what was supposed to be the final episode, "The Grey Team" (although "Without Reservations" was broadcast on NBC as the last first-run episode in March 1987 for some unknown reason), Hannibal, after being misled by Stockwell one time too many, tells him that the team will no longer work for him. At the end, the team discusses what they were going to do if they get their pardon, and it is implied that they would continue doing what they were doing as the A-Team. The character of Howling Mad Murdock can be seen in the final scene wearing a T-shirt that says, "Fini".

### Connections to the Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War, the A-Team were members of the 5th Special Forces Group (see the episode "West Coast Turnaround"). In the episode "Bad Time on the Border", Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith (George Peppard), indicated that the A-Team were "ex-Green Berets". During the Vietnam War, the A-Team's commanding officer, Colonel Morrison, gave them orders to rob the Bank of Hanoi to help bring the war to an end. They succeeded in their mission, but on their return to base four days after the end of the war, they discovered that Morrison had been killed by the Viet Cong, and that his headquarters had been burned to the ground. This meant that the proof that the A-Team members were acting under orders had been destroyed. They were arrested, and imprisoned at Fort Bragg, from which they quickly escaped before they were to go to trial.

The origin of the A-Team is directly linked to the Vietnam War, during which the team formed. The show's introduction in the first four seasons mentions this, accompanied by images of soldiers coming out of a helicopter in an area resembling a forest or jungle. Besides this, ''The A-Team'' would occasionally feature an episode in which the team came across an old ally or enemy from those war days. For example, the first season's final episode "A Nice Place To Visit" revolved around the team traveling to a small town to honor a fallen comrade and end up avenging his death, and in season two's "Recipe For Heavy Bread", a chance encounter leads the team to meet both the POW cook who helped them during the war, and the American officer who sold his unit out. Though he was affiliated with them during the war, the group's pilot "Howling Mad" Murdock was neither tried or involved in the bank robbery and is rather the group's secret member.

An article in the ''New Statesman'' (UK) published shortly after the premiere of ''The A-Team'' in the United Kingdom, also pointed out ''The A-Team's'' connection to the Vietnam War, characterizing it as the representation of the idealization of the Vietnam War, and an example of the war slowly becoming accepted and assimilated into American culture.

One of the team's primary antagonists, Col. Roderick Decker (Lance LeGault), had his past linked back to the Vietnam War in which he and Hannibal had come to fisticuffs in "the DOOM Club" (Da Nang Open Officers' Mess). At other times, members of the team would refer back to a certain tactic used during the War, which would be relevant to the team's present predicament. Often, Hannibal would refer to such a tactic, after which the other members of the team would complain about its failure during the War. This was also used to refer to some of Face's past accomplishments in scamming items for the team, such as in the first-season episode "Holiday In The Hills", in which Murdock fondly remembers Face being able to secure a '53 Cadillac while in the Vietnam jungle.

The team's ties to the Vietnam War were referred to again in the fourth-season finale, "The Sound of Thunder", in which the team is introduced to Tia (Tia Carrere), a war orphan and daughter of fourth season antagonist General Fulbright. Returning to Vietnam, Fulbright is shot in the back and gives his last words as he dies. The 2006 documentary ''Bring Back The A-Team'' joked that the scene lasted seven and a half minutes, but his death actually took a little over a minute. His murderer, a Vietnamese colonel, is killed in retaliation. Tia then returns with the team to the United States (''see also: casting''). This episode is notable for having one of the show's few truly serious dramatic moments, with each team member privately reminiscing on their war experiences, intercut with news footage from the war with Barry McGuire's ''Eve of Destruction'' playing in the background.

The show's ties to the Vietnam War are fully dealt with in the opening arc of the fifth season, dubbed "The Court-Martial (Part 1–3)", in which the team is finally court-martialed for the robbery of the bank of Hanoi. The character of Roderick Decker makes a return on the witness stand, and various newly introduced characters from the A-Team's past also make appearances. The team, after a string of setbacks, decides to plead guilty to the crime and they are sentenced to be executed. They escape this fate and come to work for a General Hunt Stockwell, leading into the remainder of the fifth season.

Mort

As a teenager, Mort has a personality and temperament that makes him unsuited to the family farming business. Mort's father Lezek takes him to a local hiring fair in the hope that Mort will land an apprenticeship; not only would this provide a job for his son, but it would also make his son's propensity for thinking someone else's problem. Just before the last stroke of midnight, Death arrives and takes Mort on as an apprentice (though his father thinks he has been apprenticed to an undertaker). Death takes Mort to his domain, where he meets Death's elderly manservant Albert, and his adopted daughter Ysabell. Mort later accompanies Death as he travels to collect the soul of a king, who is due to be assassinated by the scheming Duke of Sto Helit. After Mort unsuccessfully tries to prevent the assassination, Death warns him that all deaths are predetermined, and that he cannot interfere with fate.

Later on, Death assigns Mort to collect the soul of Princess Keli, daughter of the murdered king, but he instead kills the assassin the Duke had sent after her. Keli lives, but shortly after the assassin's death people begin acting as if something had happened without knowing why, such as a solemn song being played. She soon finds that the rest of the world no longer acknowledges her existence at all unless she confronts them and even then only in a confused manner which is forgotten immediately after. She subsequently employs the wizard Igneous Cutwell, who is able to see her as he is trained to see things that are invisible to normal people (like death) to make her existence clear to the public. Mort eventually discovers that his actions have created an alternate reality in which Keli lives, but he also learns that it is being overridden by the original reality and will eventually cease to exist, killing Keli. While consulting Cutwell, Mort sees a picture of Unseen University's founder, Alberto Malich, noting that he bears a resemblance to Albert.

Mort and Ysabell travel into the Stack, a library in Death's domain that holds the biographies of everyone who has ever lived, in order to investigate Albert, eventually discovering that he is indeed Malich. They further learn that Malich had feared monsters waiting for him in the afterlife, and performed a reversed version of the Rite of AshkEnte in the hope of keeping Death away from him. However, the spell backfired and sent him to Death's side, where he has remained in order to put off his demise. During this time, Death, yearning to relish what being human is like, travels to Ankh-Morpork to indulge in new experiences, including getting drunk, dancing, gambling and finding a job. Mort in turn starts to become more like Death, adopting his mannerisms and aspects of his personality, while his own is slowly overridden.

Death's absence forces Mort to collect the next two souls, who are both located on separate parts of the Disc, and due to die on the same night that the alternate reality will be destroyed. Before he and Ysabell leave to collect the souls, Mort uses the part of Death within him to force Albert to provide a spell that will slow down the alternate reality's destruction. After Mort and Ysabell leave, Albert returns to Unseen University, under the identity of Malich. His eagerness to live on the Disc is reinvigorated during this time, and he has the wizards perform the Rite of AshkEnte in the hope of finally escaping Death's grasp. The ritual summons both Death and the part of Death that had been taking Mort over, restoring him to normal. Unaware of Albert's treachery, Death takes him back into his service, the Librarian preventing the wizard's escape.

Mort and Ysabell travel to Keli's palace, where the princess and Cutwell have organised a hasty coronation ceremony in the hope that Keli can be crowned queen before the alternate reality is destroyed. With the reality now too small for Albert's spell, Mort and Ysabell save Keli and Cutwell from being destroyed with the alternate reality. They return to Death's domain to find a furious Death waiting for them, the latter having learned of Mort's actions from Albert. Death dismisses Mort and attempts to take the souls of Keli and Cutwell, but Mort challenges him to a duel for them. Though Death eventually wins the duel, he spares Mort's life and sends him back to the Disc.

Death convinces the gods to change the original reality so that Keli rules in place of the Duke, who was inadvertently killed during Death and Mort's duel. Mort and Ysabell – who have fallen in love over the course of the story – get married, and are made Duke and Duchess of Sto Helit by Keli, while Cutwell is made the Master of the Queen's Bedchamber. Death attends Mort and Ysabell's reception, where he warns Mort that he will have to make sure that the original Duke's destiny is fulfilled, and presents him with the alternate reality he created, now shrunk to the size of a large pearl, before the two part on amicable terms.

The Singularity (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

S.H.I.E.L.D. scrambles to repair the damage Daisy did to the base, while Coulson, who sustained a leg injury, resolves to defeat Hive and save Daisy. Fitz, Simmons and Lincoln determine that the effect of Hive's infection will prevent those Inhumans he controls from being sedated. Realizing Alisha would be a powerful asset to Hive, Coulson, May and Lincoln visit her, only to find she has already been infected and has gone with Hive, leaving her duplicates to attack them. After the duplicates are killed, Coulson orders Lincoln to stay out of the field until they have a cure for Hive's infection.

Hive and Daisy approach James, revealing they know he has another Kree artifact connected to the orb, which Hive describes as the only thing that can destroy him. They induce his Terrigenesis, giving him the ability to explosively charge objects (in a similar manner to an Extremis combustion), and Hive enthrals him, learning he buried the companion artifact beneath his home. Daisy's use of her seismokinetic powers to unearth the artifact attracts the attention of SHIELD, and Coulson and May arrive to find the Inhumans already gone, along with the artifact. The hut is destroyed by a planted bomb, but Coulson protects himself and May with an energy shield projected from his robotic hand.

Meanwhile, Fitz, Simmons and Mack decide to seek out Holden Radcliffe, who was in charge of Transia's work against invasive organisms, before he was fired for his transhumanist beliefs. While continuing to discuss how to proceed with their relationship, Fitz and Simmons infiltrate a transhumanist social club to find Radcliffe, under the guise of geneticists wanting to sell him eye prosthetic technology based on those used for Project Deathlok. Upon meeting Radcliffe they reveal their true intentions and ask for his help to devise a cure for Hive's infection, but they are interrupted by the arrival of Hive himself and his Inhuman allies. Alisha abducts Radcliffe, while Daisy subdues Fitz with her powers and warns him of her vision of an agent's death, wanting S.H.I.E.L.D. to stop trying to combat Hive, and avoid that future from coming to pass. Mack narrowly escapes James, and Hive approaches Simmons, speaking to her as Will, using his memories, only for her to shoot him and escape, after deriding him for trying to be someone he murdered. The three agents reconvene at a hotel, where Fitz and Simmons finally consummate their relationship while Mack "goes to the quinjet" (purposely leaving them alone for a while).

Under Coulson's direction, Talbot and the ATCU use information Malick provided before his death to neutralize what is left of Hydra, with the exception of the forces commanded by Hive. So all HYDRA facilities, buildings and stations are bombed and destroyed, with Coulson and May looking on, satisfied.

In an end tag, Hive brings Daisy, Radcliffe, Alisha, and James (who has chosen the moniker 'Hellfire') to a town he bought with Malick's money. Seeking to make Earth 'the home Inhumans deserve', he reveals his intention to recreate the original Kree experiments and convert the entire human race into Inhumans, with Radcliffe's medical and scientific help.